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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Mexico, Modern Literature, And The Search For Soul
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Mexico, Modern Literature, And The Search For Soul
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INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological mean* to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality if Heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Pag»(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing paga(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pagas to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round Week mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus causa a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. Whan a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of e large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again - beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greetest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. 6. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as reoeived. Xerox University MterofHntg 300 North Z— b Ro*d Am Alitor. WcMflon 44106 0 * % I i 74-14,443 HARMER, Ruth Mulvey, 1919- M EXICO, M O D E R N LITERATURE, A N D TH E SEA R C H FO R SOUL. University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1972 Language and Literature, modem U niversity Microfilms. A XEROX C o m p an y , A nn Arbor, M ichigan © 1974 RUTH MULVEY HARMER ALL RIGHTS RESER V ED THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. MEXICO, M ODERN LITERATURE, A N D THE SEARCH FOR SOUL by Ruth Mulvey Harmer A D is s e rta tio n Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In P a r ti a l F u lfillm e n t of the Requirements fo r the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (English) June 1972 UNIVERSITY O F SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THE ORADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY FARR LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA SOOOT This dissertation, written by under the direction of rt& JB — . Uissertatton Com mittee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by The Gradu ate School, in partial fulfillment of require ments of the degree of D O C T O R OF P H I L O S O P H Y DISSERTATION COMMITTEE TABLE OP CONTENTS CHAPTER Page I THE SEARCH FOR A SOUL 1 I I MEXICO AS M ETAPHOR ^0 I I I D. H. LAW RENCE AND "THE DARK GODS" 82 IV KATHERINE ANNE PORTER'S APOCALYPTIC „ A IRONY 210 V GRA H AM OREENE’S PUOITIVE SAINT 310 VI M ALCOLM LOW RY: BEYOND THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS 392 BIBLIOGRAPHY ^55 11 CHAPTER I THE SEARCH POR A SOUL 1 World War I was more than the end of Empire. That | b a t t l e ro y a l, an obscene family squabble th a t l e f t Europe a shambles, a lso s h a tte re d the Image of Western man as a colossus b e s tr id in g the e a rth he had conquered with h is ! reason, h is w i l l , and h is machines. The myth of a c i v i l iz e d and p e r f e c tib le being who held dominion over an expanding r e a l i t y had been evolving sin ce the Renaissance, had freed Western man from h is medieval p riso n . That 'r e b i r t h ' had opened up fo r him a l l time and a l l space, giv in g him a p resent and p ast as well as h e r e a f te r , en larg in g the l i t t l e square of ground s itu a te d between heaven and h e ll to a g re a t globe to which he held the r i g h t s of c i t iz e n . The Renaissance gave him a body as w ell as a so u l, a b e lie f In him self and h is power. "Numberless are the w o rld 's wonders, but none more wonderful than man,"1 Sophocles had w ritte n during the Oolden Age of Oreece. A fter almost two thousand y e a rs, th a t again became a c re d ib le n o tio n . Leon B a ttis ta A lb e rti, a r c h i te c t , o ra to r, m usician, philosopher, a t h l e t e , gentleman - - "the embodied sy n th esis of h is time" — had summed up the p o s s i b i l i t i e s during the f i f t e e n t h century: "Men oan do a l l th in g s i f they w i l l . " 2 3 Such confidence In the a b i l i t y of the Indiv idual encouraged c re a tiv e outpourings In every f ie ld : p h llo so - i phy, scien ce, r e li g i o n , p o l i t i c s , a r t . Less c o n stru c tiv e I : | was the concomitant b e lie f In the I n v in c ib ility of the i : In d iv id u a l, which encouraged men to b eliev e they had the r i g h t to e x p lo it and m anipulate o th er men, dominate naturei fo r t h e i r own p r o f i t , deal with God on t h e i r own terms ! fo r s a lv a tio n . D iscoveries and Inventions were regarded as to o ls fo r the a c q u is itio n of w ealth, which meant power. That asp ect became more Intensiv e and more d e s tru c tiv e during the eig h teen th and n in eteen th c e n tu rie s . The Renaissance Ideal of the whole man gave way to the demand f o r a sp e c ia liz e d fragm ent. The a f f e c tiv e man Is not an e f f e c tiv e one since he I n te r fe re s with the business of government, the business of scien c e, the business of r e li g i o n , the business of b u sin ess. Therefore, h is f e e l ings can be dispensed w ith; even h is body can be reduced to more manageable s i z e . During the medieval p eriod, people were counted as "so u ls"; In the Renaissance, as "men"; In the Machine Age, "hands." B eing, as Erich Fromm puts I t , was replaced by fu n c tio n . World War I , the f i r s t g re a t tech n o lo g ical 'trium ph' of t h is c e n tu ry , revealed the meaning of th a t change. i i ............... The r e a c tio n s of D. H. Lawrence, T. S. E l i o t , and o th e r w r ite r s who saw t h a t c l e a r ly were th e "screams in the n ig h t" now being echoed by th e a p o c aly p tic v o ices of our own tim e. They have d i f f e r e n t words fo r whet happened to man: Norman 0. Brown and the R eiklan b ody-philosophers . la b e l i t se p a ra te n e s s and c a l l f o r a r e s u r r e c tio n of the body, unbounded and u n i f i e d . 3 C harles A Reich and s o c ia l p s y c h o lo g is ts c a l l i t the " lo s s of c o n s c io u sn e s s," 1 * th a t d i s t i n c t i v e l y human q u a lity th a t Involves an "awareness of a l l the phenomena of o n e 's w o rld ." R elig io u s p h ilo s o phers l i k e Paul T i l l i c h deplore man’s estrangem ent from Ood.5 N e u ro s c ie n tis ts lik e C harles M. P a ir term i t a "psychic c o n tra c tio n " th a t has r e s u lte d from the expansion of th e n e o c o r tic a l area of the b ra in (Inv o lv in g learned behavior and th in k in g ) and i t s s e p a ra tio n from the subcor- t l c a l system (in v o lv in g i n s t i n c t i v e behavior and fe e lin g ).^ At th e h e a r t of a l l of the th e o r ie s about man's a l i e n a t i o n from s e l f , from s o c ie ty , from God Is Lawrence's anguished p r o t e s t about the war: " I t was so f o u l, and humanity In Europe f e l l suddenly Into such ignominy and Inhuman g h a s tlin e s s th a t we s h a ll never f u l l y r e a l i z e what I t w a s . M o st a p p a llin g o f a l l , he added, was th a t humanity had f a l l e n Into "the hideous d e p ra v ity of h a tin g 5 the human s o u l." (p. 3 5 8) Apocalyptic warnings th a t s c i e n t i f i c , p o l i t i c a l , te c h n o lo g ic a l, and philosophic advances made a f t e r the medieval period had su b trac te d more from man than I t had added to him were not new. N ineteenth century w rite rs on both sid e s of the A tla n tic had a s s e rte d th a t by d estro y in g man's organic connection with n atu re and the s u p e rn a tu ra l, man had been rendered a mechanical toy — without s p i r i t or soul — a t the bidding of the machines he had created and a t the no-mercy of the god from the U ltim ate Machine. Poets assumed the ro le of prophet. William Blake, who has had such profound Impact on the p o et-p hllosop hers of our own tim e, preached sermons on the re s u rre c tio n of the body. Man had once been a d iv in ely In te g ra te d being: "The head Sublime, the h e a rt Pathos, the g e n ita ls Beauty, the hands and fe e t Proportion."® But the I n s t it u ti o n s he had c reated — r e l i g i o u s , s o c ia l, p o l i t i c a l — had f r a g mented and debased him, negating energy and I n s tln o t. "Prisons are b u i l t with stones of Law, b ro th e ls with b ric k s of R e lig io n ." (p. 45) Like him, Coleridge raged a g a in s t "the s e c re t and t a c i t compact among the learned no t to pass beyond a c e r ta in lim i t In sp e c u la tiv e s c i e n c e , a p p e a l i n g f o r the r e s to r a tio n of a r e lig io u s 6 sense and a s p i r i t u a l answer f o r m aterialism . He and Wordsworth s e t as aim of t h e i r f i r s t g re a t work the | | re-awakening of awe and wonder — to i n s t i l l "a fe e lin g ! of the su p ern atu ral" about everyday things and to evoke i "a suspension of d is b e lie f " In th e su p e rn a tu ra l. Other Romantic w r ite r s believed t h e ir purpose to be e s s e n tia lly 4 r e l i g i o u s . Keats, f o r example, f e l t th a t the p o e t's fu n c tio n was "to tra n sm it a knowledge of god to man."10 Voices became more apo caly p tic as the century wore on and the e f f e c t s of c a p ita lis m , I n d u s tr ia liz a tio n , and m echanization became more apparent and the sense of dead- ness grew. Although some se t an e a r l i e r d a te , P air considers the l830s to be the "watershed" of the p re se n t: the point a t which psychic u nity su ffered a d is s o lu tio n g e n e ra lly , as exem plified by the sudden breakdown In t a s t e . 11 The 'n ig h tm arish ' a r t and a r c h ite c tu r e of the perio d r e f l e c t the divorce between thlnklng-m lnd and feellng-m lnd; so do g ro sse r em otional responses In p er sonal r e l a t i o n s . In r e lig io u s I n s t i t u t i o n s , c o n tro l was assumed by "adaptive" men — "without Id eals which In any s i g n if ic a n t way a l t e r t h e i r d riv e to personal success or I n te r f e r e with t h e i r purely expedient use of moral Issues of the tim e." (p. 155) C arlyle Inveighed a g a in st the "Mechanical Age" and the "Mammon-Goape1," remembering sorrow fully England's I medieval p ast when a r e lig io u s sense had Inspired man. P re se n tly , he cautioned, machines were d estroy ing not only ' moral fo rc e, but the source of a l l human fo rc e : "the m ysterious sp rin g s of Love, and P ear, and Wonder, of Enthusiasm, Poetry, R eligio n, a l l of which have a tr u ly v i t a l and i n f i n i t e c h a ra c te r. . . . "12 The Mammon-Gospel had powdered what was once a s o c ie ty into " t o t a l l s t sep aratio n " and destroyed man's c o n tro llin g myth: God's ab so lu te Laws, sanctioned by an e te r n a l Heaven and an e te r n a l H ell, have become Moral P hilosop hies, sanctioned by ab le computations of P r o f it and Loss, by weak c o n sid e ra tio n s of Pleasures and V irtue and the Moral Sublim e.1’ Other English w rite r s followed C arly le to the p u lp it: Matthew Arnold, John Ruskln, C ardinal Newman, William M orris. The more o p tim is tic of them f e l t th a t a lie n a te d man could be re sto re d to s e l f and to s o c ie ty through l i t e r a t u r e and an a r t th a t expressed the r e lig io u s sense. Newman's v isio n — h is sense of a lie n a tio n — was more profound, more p e s s im is tic : To co n sid er . . . the g reatn ess and l i t t l e n e s s of man, h is f a r reaching alms, h is sh o rt d u ra tio n , the c u r ta in hung over h is fu tu r e , the d isa p p o in t ments of l i f e , the d e feat of the good, the success of e v i l , ph y sical pain, mental anguish, the preva lence and In te n s ity of s in , the pervading I d o la t r i e s , the c o rru p tio n s , the dreary hopeless l r r e l l g l o n , th a t c o n d itio n of the whole race . . . a l l t h i s Is a v isio n to dizzy and a p p a ll; and I n f l i c t s upon the mind the sense of profound m ystery, which Is a b so lu te ly beyond human solution.!** On t h i s side of the A tla n tic voices were a ls o heard. C a r ly le 's frie n d Emerson spoke out a g a in st the c a p itu la tio n to "large s o c i e t i e s and dead I n s t i t u t i o n s , " which were p a rt of the "conspiracy a g a in s t the manhood" of every member of the s o c i e t y . *5 Man, who was once "permeated and d isso lv ed by s p i r i t " and who " f i l l e d n atu re with h is overflowing c u r r e n ts ," had become "the dwarf of h im s e lf ," ^ Emerson, who had e a r l i e r been o p tim istic about In d u s tria l p ro g re ss, came to see a f t e r h is second v i s i t to England In 1847 th a t "the machine unmans the user" and th a t em p irical philosophy was "the ro o t of modern pow erless n ess. Thoreau and others echoed him. Henry Adams u tte re d h is h o rro r about the consequences of the Mechani c a l Era — perhaps the most profound u tte ra n c e by an American before World War I . In c o n tra s tin g the beauty of pre-R enaissance c u ltu re with what came a f t e r , he used to symbolize the two the V irgin (beauty, r e li g i o n , re p ro d u ctio n , heaven) and th e Dynamo (production, u t i l i t y , sc ie n c e , h e l l ) A fter World War I , th ere was no gainsaying man's d e fe a t by the machine, the triumph of technology over 9 humanity. Although the war has alnce been dwarfed by o th e r events — the Nazis' ex term in atio n of the Jews, the bombing of Hiroshima, the 'p a c i f i c a t i o n ' of Vietnam — ! I nothing lik e the magnitude of th a t stru g g le had ever been | ; known b efo re. I t snuffed out as many as f i f t y thousand f liv e s a day, rep laced the green f i e l d s of a co n tin en t with barren ground, wasted the wealth and p ro s p e rity of every n a tio n Involved, entangled a l l of them In an ev er- widening web of c o n f l i c t . "When a t l a s t I t was o v er," Barbara W . Tuchman concluded her b r i l l i a n t account of a sin g le month, "the war had many d iv e rse r e s u l t s and one dominant one tran scen d in g a l l o th e rs: d i s i l l u s i o n . Heading the c a su a lty l i s t was Western man, who had | destroyed so much of value In h is mad e f f o r t to e x e rt h is w il l . The scarred and p itte d b a t t l e f i e l d s , as w ell as the slag heaps of N ottingham shire, symbolized the r u t h lessn ess and ro tte n n e s s of h is economic I n s t i t u t i o n s . The churches, which had encouraged him to b eliev e th a t s a lv a tio n lay "over there" a t the b lu n t end of a bayonet, had lo s t the magic and the power to move him. The s h i f t s i of power and diplom atic In trlg u ln g s in d icated the hollow ness of h is p o l i t i c a l I n s t i t u ti o n s — so lack in g , as i ; Crane B rlnton has pointed ou t, In "rich n ess and depth of i i 10 awareness of what human beings are r e a l ly l i k e . ”20 C o lle c tiv e ly and In d iv id u a lly , h is soul had been entombed In the e la b o ra te sepulchres each country e rected to i t s ''unknown s o l d i e r . ” T. S. E lio t regarded as fo rtu n a te i I : those who had crossed "with d i r e c t eyes, to death a o th e r ! Kingdom.” He and o th e r s e n s itiv e members of h is genera tio n , l o s t In the "cactus l a n d ,” saw themselves as "hollow men . . , s tu ffe d men,” as: Shape w ithout form, shade without colour. Paralysed fo rc e , g estu re without m otIon.21 Some of the d is illu s io n e d sought refuge In a r t , Irony, and e x ile In Europe In the varying s ty le s of Joyce, Shaw, and Hemingway. E l i o t, who had seen more c le a rly than alm ost any o th e r the predicament of Western man, re je c te d the challenge to rescue the waste la n d 's F ish e r King and sought p riv a te r e l i e f In t r a d i t i o n In a r t and t r a d i t i o n a l p o l i t i c a l and r e lig io u s I n s t i t u t i o n s . P o li t i c s , very Left and very B ight, captured the lo y a ltie s of o th e rs , who sometimes - - lik e John Dos Passos — switched from one to another or who sometimes — lik e Pound, Auden, Orwell, and Spender — entered extreme encampments. 22 Such s o lu tio n s were not very h e lp fu l fo r many s e rio u s w rite rs since they did not come to terms with the X I revelations made by the apocalyptic c r i t i c s o f th e n i n e teenth century or their own time the p r e s e n c e o f e v l X a n d j death. The new p o litica l modes were p r e d i c a t e d on t h e concept of man as a social animal w h o se p r o b le m s c o u l d b e ( i i solved by exercising the collective w i l l — a s In t h e o a e e | ' of Communism — or the Individual w i l l s o r a few P a s o 1 s t 1 c I leaders. Their concern was with m a t e r i a l c o n d i t i o n s ; rather than sp iritu al abstractions. R e l i g i o u s I n s t i t u tions, old and new, also emphasized t h e r e a s o n a b l e approach to lif e , holding evil and d e a t h t o be " e r r o r s ,f which any good man — and man is e s s e n t i a l l y good — c o u l d eliminate from the universe by logic a n d w i l l . Pew Catholic clerics shared Cardinal Newman ' s c o n c e rn a b o u t | alienation — his pessimistic argument t h a t . . i f there be a Cod, since there Is a Ood, t h e human r a c e I s implicated in some terrib le a b o r ig in a l c a l a m i t y . N o r* did Protestant clerics share L u th er's b e l i e f in t h e a w f u l powers of the devil and the dominion o f d e a t h in l i f e . Indeed, as Brown has Insisted, the " e l i m i n a t i o n o r d i a b o lism and eachatology are the t h e o l o g i c a l p r e m is e s f o r t h e degeneration of the social doctrine o r iA ith e ra n ls m I n t o 2 4 a 'religious sanction of the e x is tin g s i t u a t i o n ' . . . " Such unimaginative views of the h u m a n c o n d i t i o n 12 seemed to a number of w rite rs more s u ita b le fo r propaganda than serio u s a r t . They were bent on discovering new answers to the problems of e v il and death. They would fin d ways of d ealin g with the d e v ll25 ana re su rre c tin g those dead men E lio t had seen flowing In a crowd over ! London Bridge and who were equally v is ib le In a l l the o th e r Western c a p it a l s . The f i r s t ord er of a r t , as they conceived I t , was to discover the soul - - an Idea th at has gained such follow ing among the apocalyptic generation of the 1960s and 1970s th a t 'Soul" (food, bro ther, language, even c lo th in g ) la the way of d istin g u ish in g the •living* young from t h e i r moribund e ld e r s . The search f o r a soul led them back through the Age of Reason to the e a rly days of the Reformation and the Lutheran d octrine th a t "God leads down to h e ll those whom He p red estines to heaven, and makes a liv e by s la y in g .,,c:o Beyond th a t, I t led back to the medieval period, with I ts preoccupation with d eath , I t s re lig io u s s e n s i b i lit y , Its symbolical consciousness, I t s m ystical tra n s p o rts , i t s In te rp e n e tra tio n of the sacred and profane. I t led to the m ystical- i m agical t r a d i t i o n s of the Jewish and C h ristia n C ab b allsts, who believed th a t through Im itation and c re a tio n and m editatio n man can transcend h is condition and become one 13 with God.^7 Understandably, th a t I n te r e s t In the o cc u lt led f u r th e r a f i e l d to more e s o te r ic E astern r e lig io n s . S oul-seekers were a ls o drawn to two I n t e l l e c t u a l j d is c ip lin e s th a t seemed to o f f e r some help In r e s to r in g the sense of wonder and mystery th a t had been l o s t : anthropology and psychology. Modern l i t e r a t u r e has been guided ex ten siv ely by such psychic ex p lo re rs sb Freud and Jung and S ir James F razer. The f i r s t breakthrough had occurred much e a r l i e r when William James exploded the cherished s c i e n t i f i c and re lig io u s b e l i e f In an o rd erly universe and an o rderly mind. Nature Is a c tu a lly ”a vast plenum . . . overflow ing with d is o rd e rly arrangements from our point of v iew /' James had a s s e r te d . S im ila rly , man’s consciousness Is no c le a r , lo g ic a l, and s t a t i c world, but a stream of "free water" In which each d e f in i t e Image Is "steeped and dyed,"®® James not only provided h is b ro th e r and most s i g n if ic a n t n o v e lis ts sin ce with the means of p e n e tra tin g the deeper reg io n s of the mind, he e s ta b lis h e d f o r them In V a rie tie s of R eligious Experience a psychological foundation f o r symbolical consciousness th a t sees a transcend ent meaning In a l l th in g s: 14 By c u lt i v a t i n g the continuous sense of our con n ec tio n with the power th a t made th in g s as they a r e , we are tempered more towardly fo r t h e i r i re c e p tio n . The outward face of n atu re need not a l t e r , but the ex pressio n s of meaning in i t j a l t e r . I t was dead and is a liv e a g a ln .29 Freud a ls o aided the soul seekers by guiding them past the shallow s of consciousness Into p rim itiv e , I r r a tio n a l depths of the mind whose e x isten ce r a t i o n a l man had denied. He made them aware of the shams, the l i e s , the f o l l i e s , the h y p o c risie s of Western c iv i l iz e d l i f e . MammonIsm the mad accum ulation of money and property - was no more than anal e ro tic ism of an I n f a n tile s t a g e .30 How could the rig h teo u s c i t i z e n be d is tin g u is h e d from the , crim in al? " I t Is a m atter of In d iffe re n c e who a c tu a lly ! committed the crime; psychology Is only concerned to know i who d e sire d i t em otionally and who welcomed I t when I t was done."^1 Who Is mad and who Is sane? The p o l i t i c i a n tr a n s l a t i n g Inadequacy and f r u s t r a t i o n Into world c a ta clysm? The schizophrenic communing with Ood? What has s e x u a lity to do with m orality — the p re v a ilin g ' r e l i g io u s' eq uatio n - - I f a l l share an Id and some p re fe r to sublim ate t h e i r law less d e s ire s Into s o c ia lly acceptable s a d i s t i c p ra c tic e s ? Although F reud’s "everyman" was a complex c re a tu re , I some w rite r s f e l t th a t he was too lim ite d to serve as a 15 model o r even as a guide In the search fo r r e in t e g r a tio n . 3 2 Psyche Involved more than the p leasure p r in c ip le , i I they f e l t . Also, they considered Freud too much the i s c i e n t i s t , too bound by laws of cause and e f f e c t to be cognizant of "the m y stery ."33 They followed h is p rin c ip a l d is c ip le beyond. One of the most e s s e n t i a l d iffe re n c e s between Freud and Jung, so f a r as modern l i t e r a t u r e is concerned, is the l e t t e r ' s theory th a t the unconscious mind (Freud*s subconscious) Is not merely a dark chamber of rep ressed d e s ir e s , but a glowing world as Im portant to the In d iv id u al as h is conscious "c o g ita tin g " mind — a world th a t is v i t a l and wide and In some re sp e c ts w iser even than the conscious. P rim itive man liv e d harmoniously with h is I n s tin c tu a l s e l f . The p ric e demanded by the post-m edieval emphasis on the r a ti o n a l mind was a d iv is io n of man's conscious ness from "the deeper I n s tin c tiv e s t r a t a of the human psyche, and even u ltim a te ly from the somatic b a sis of the psychic phenomenon."3^ F o rtu n a te ly , however, Jung and h is follow ers a s s e r te d , the basic I n s tin c tiv e s t r a t a have not t o t a l l y disappeared, although — as a p a rt of the unconscious — they express themselves In the form of dreams, where symbols re p re se n t I n s tin c tiv e phenomena. 16 R ein te g ra tio n thus depends on le a rn in g "the fo rg o tte n language of the I n s t i n c t s . "35 Although most of the symbols th a t are the "e b s e n tla l | message c a r r i e r s " from the I n s tin c tiv e to the r a ti o n a l p a rts of the human mind occur In dreams, they a lso appear In a r t and various kinds of psychic m an ifestatio n s since th e re are symbolic thoughts and f e e lin g s , a c ts and s i t u a tio n s which are c o lle c tiv e In t h e i r nature and o r i g i n . 3^ Indeed, as Jung sa id : I am so profoundly convinced of t h i s homogeneity of the human psyche th a t I have a c tu a lly embraced I t In the concept of a c o lle c tiv e unconscious, as a u n iv e rsa l and homogeneous substratum whose homogeneity extends even Into a world-wide Iden t i t y or s im ila r ity of myths and f a ir y t a l e s ; so th a t a negro In the Southern S ta te s of America i dreams In the m otifs of Oreclan mythology, and | a Swiss g r o c e r 's ap p ren tic e re p e a ts in h is psy ch osis the v isio n of an Egyptian g n o s t i c .3* I f man Is to solve h is mystery and heal h im self, he must — through the process of In d iv id u atio n - - e s ta b lis h a p o s itiv e r e la t i o n between the c o lle c tiv e archetypes and the In dividual ego, which becomes Increasingly conscious of them .38 He must find the key to t r a n s l a t i n g those symbols even though t h e i r o rig in may be burled In a p ast so remote th a t they seem to have no human source. A key to the mystery had been o ffered In 1890 by S ir i James Oeorge F raz er, the S c o ttish c l a s s i c i s t and an th ro p o lo g ist whose monumental study of comparative fo lk lo r e , magic, and r e li g i o n has profoundly a ffe c te d modern thought. Freud, p a r tic u l a r ly In Totem and Taboo, and Jung, In alm ost a l l of h is s i g n if ic a n t works, were Indebted to the evidence F razer o ffe red p o in tin g to the u n iv e r s a lity of man's e f f o r t s to fin d a "magic" to p ro te c t him from the th re a te n in g fo rces w ithin and w ithout. The Qolden Bough began with F r a z e r 's study of the "s te rn and s i n i s t e r " King of the Wood, the p r i e s t and murderer, who prowled the sacred grove of Diana on the bank of Lake Neml, searching with sword In hand f o r the man who would su rely slay him and become p r le s t- k ln g In h is s te a d . Brooding over the stran ge "primeval" r u le of a priesth o o d th a t had no p a r a l l e l In c l a s s i c a l a n tiq u ity although I t survived In I t a l y f o r c e n tu r ie s , F razer speculated th a t an answer lay " fa rth e r a f i e l d . " I f he could fin d s im ila r customs elsew here, I f he could a s c e r t a i n the motives underlying them, he would have s c i e n t i f i c support fo r the theory th a t d e s p ite many s u p e r f ic ia l d iffe re n c e s , th e re was an " e s s e n tia l s im ila r ity " about the human mind and i t s e la b o ra tio n of a " f i r s t crude philosophy of l i f e . "39 F r a z e r 's w ide-ranging research Into p rim itiv e customs 18 dated back In time to Assyria and ventured fo rth In space from the English cou ntryside to the rem otest regions of A frica, Asia, and America. Although some of h is fin d in g s j ’ were Inaccurate and he m isin te rp re te d the fin d in g s of ! i o th e rs , he, n o n eth eless, provided a n th ro p o lo g is ts , psych o lo g is ts , and many r e l i g i o n i s t s with proof of men's " e s s e n tia l s i m i l a r i t y ." The u n iv e r s a lity of myths and r i t u a l s th a t had evolved out of f e a r of death and h o s tile fo rc e s in d icated th a t the psychic s e l f , which had been so long Ignored, was as human as the r a ti o n a l ego. And perhaps I t was more valuable since I t saved men from "hollow ness," from a lie n a tio n and d e s p a ir, enabled him to confront the r e a l i t i e s of e v i l and death. i Psychotherapy o ffe red one way of g e ttin g In touch with the psychic s e l f ; so did c e r ta in types of r e lig io n : E astern philosophy, Jewish and C h ris tia n mysticism, and theosophy — which holds the b e l i e f th a t knowledge la sto re d in the soul r a th e r than the mind. The b e l i e f , c e n tr a l to p rim itiv e r e lig io u s thought, Is summed up In the response of a T z o tz ll Indian In Mexico to qu estio ns by a n th ro p o lo g ist C allx ta OuIteras-Holmes, who has described I t In P e rils of the Soul. Asked how he learned a l l th a t he knew, he explained th a t what Is seen and heard during f i i i ' L . . . . . the day la learned by the soul a t n ig h t In a dream: That which Is learned through the mouth Is f o r g o tte n ; I t Is through the soul th a t we le a rn . The soul re p e a ts I t In the h e a rt, not In the mind, and only then do we know what to do.^° That kind of le a rn in g held out enormous hope f o r so p h is t i c a t e d Europeans and Americans, thanks p a r tly to Madame Helena B lavatsky, the grande dame of the theosophlcal s e c e s s io n is t movement th a t was launched In 1875* W riters as d iv e rse as William B u tle r Yeats and D. H. Lawrence became her d is c ip le s and In stru c te d o th ers through t h e i r works. R eligious mysticism, so valued today, a t t r a c te d many, Including w rite rs seemingly as opposite as Graham Oreene and Malcolm Lowry, who were In trig u ed by the medi eval yearning fo r the ab so lu te a n n ih ila tio n of the in d iv id u a l. Other ro u tes to the discovery of soul e x iste d : drugs and alcohol had enabled poets lik e Poe and Rimbaud — both of whom have Influenced modern w ritin g — to escape r a t i o n a l co n fin e s. Im portantly, th e re was t r a v e l. Henry James and Joseph Conrad, two outstan d in g p ioneers, had demonstrated before World War I th a t — In the words of L eslie F ie d le r — "the search fo r Id e n tity leads outward as w ell as Inward."**1 However, the r i g h t place Is not, as F ie d le r a s s e r t s , the one he knows b e s t. I t Is the place In which the w rite r fin d s the "magic" th a t enables him to be a whole person, a complete a r t i s t . I t Is the one which makes him most In ten sely aware of the paradoxi c a l tensions th a t are e s s e n t i a l to c re a tio n ; lo v e -h a te , g o o d -ev il, s p l r l t - m a t t e r , I lf e - d e a th . Journeys have always been an In s p ira tio n to a r t i s t s , sharpening p e rc e p tio n s, heightening awareness. To English and American w rite rs In the tw entieth century they have become almost an Im perative, as the wanderers a f t e r World War I made c le a r . For them, the Journeys were not simply broadening a e s th e tic experiences, but r e lig io u s p ilg rim ages to sacred p la c e s. The relevance of t h i s notio n to our own time was suggested In 1971 by Mlrcea E llad e, In a p ro te s t a g a in s t man's d e s a c ra llz a tlo n of him self and h is world. P ointing out th a t land must be tre a te d as sacred I f I t Is to endure, he sa id : Indeed, f o r the r e lig io u s man, space Is not homogeneous. Some p a rts of I t are q u a l i ta t i v e l y d i f f e r e n t from o th e rs . There e x is t s sacred apaoe, and hence a stro n g , s ig n if ic a n t space. And th e re are o th ers th a t are not sacred and so w ithout s tr u c tu r e , form, or meaning.^ Por r e lig io u s w rite r s fin d in g th a t became a t e r r i t o r i a l Im perative. Henry James had discovered "soul country" In Europe before the war, a cosmos th a t contained heaven and h e l l . Europe had enabled him to give f u l l r e in to h is b e lie f In death and e v i l , and I t waa th a t experience th a t accounted fo r hla g re a tn e ss. No one who Is not Intim ately aware of death can be In ten sely a liv e ; no one who Is not In tim ately aware of e v i l can understand good ness. To In sp ire p ity and t e r r o r , the ne plus u l t r a of l i t e r a r y a r t , a w rite r must convey the experience of e v i l and death to t h e i r o u te r l i m i t s . And a l l of Jam es's fin e novels do t h a t . In t h e i r JourneyIngs through the in fern o , h is heroes and hero in es may lose t h e i r Innocence — as Isa b e l Archer In P o r t r a i t of a Lady and Maggie Verver in The Qolden Bowl do — but they gain t h e i r so u ls; and In t h e i r acceptance of s u ffe rin g , moral grandeur. Europe did not introduce James to the I r r a t i o n a l , t e r r i f y in g " th in g ” w ith in . His f a th e r and b ro th er had done t h a t . Henry James, S r ., w ithin le s s than ten seconds on a p leasa n t evening a f t e r a com fortable d in n er, was "reduced from a s t a t e of firm , vigorous, Joyful manhood to one of almost hopeless Infancy" by "a damned shape s q u a ttin g In v is ib le to me w ithin the p re c in c ts of the room."^3 The V a r ie tie s of R eligious Experience Is crammed with "case h i s t o r i e s " of divided selv es and slclc so u ls, lik e th a t of the man who had experienced "a h o rrib le f e a r of my own e x isten ce " when he recognized him self one 22 evening a t home In the Image of an e p i l e p t i c p a tie n t he had seen In the asylum. He f e l t so keenly "such a h o rro r ; of him" and such conv ictio n th a t the shape and he were Id e n tic a l th a t : "something h ith e r to s o lid w ith in my b re a s t gave way e n t i r e l y , and I became a mass of q uiv erin g f e a r . " 44 Europe had helped Henry James to Id e n tify the "shapes," to recognize t h e i r u biquitousness and u n iv er s a l i t y . Although h is way led to fash io n ab le water p la c e s, gracious English manors and e le g a n t P a ris ia n town houses, I t always s k ir te d the p re c ip ic e . F. 0. M atthleson has said of him t h a t : "In a more enduring way than e i t h e r h is f a th e r or h is b ro th er had done, he kept through l i f e the sense of the abyss always lu rk in g beneath the f r a g i l e s u r f a c e ." 45 The abyss — th a t a ll-im p o rta n t fe a tu re of "soul country" — was even more apparent from the vantage p o in t of h is p rin c ip a l d i s c i p le , Joseph Conrad, whose voyaglngs to A fric a, the O rie n t, A u s tra lia , and South America had taken him d i r e c tly Into places of death and moral darkness and connected him with the man w ith in . C onrad's thousand mile Journey up the Congo In 1890 had begun bravely enough as the f u lf illm e n t of a childhood dream eig h teen years e a r l i e r , when he ris k e d the d e ris io n of h is school chums by p u ttin g h is fin g e r on a spot "In I the very middle of the then white h e a rt of A frica" and d e c la rin g th a t some day he would go t h e r e . ^ The physical i ' i hardships he endured on the SS Rol dee Beiges had brought him p e rilo u s ly clo se to death. When he f i n a l l y a rriv e d a t the spot on the map, he found him self in the C ity of : Die, ap palled by the evidence of "the v i l e s t scramble f o r lo o t th a t ever d is fig u re d the h is to ry of human conscience and geographical e x p l o r a t i o n . H i s wife said l a t e r th a t he had retu rn ed "a d is illu s io n e d and broken m a n . "**8 But Conrad, h im self, recognized th a t something more Important had happened th e re . In the course of the experience, he had discovered s e l f and so u l. As he said of the change th a t had occurred, before the Congo t r i p "I was a p e rfe c t anim al. "**9 S u p e rfic ia lly th a t seems an ex tra o rd in a ry n o tio n . His choice of nightmare acknowledged a bond between him s e l f and Kurtz, th a t most depraved of men who had committed unspeakable excesses In the name of business and p h ila n thropy (he was a lso working f o r the I n te r n a tio n a l Society fo r the Suppression of Savage Customs) a g a in s t people so t r u s t i n g , Innocent, g e n tle , and kind I t seemed as I f they ! " s t i l l belonged to the beginnings of ti m e .”5° Kurtz had dared the u ltim ate In death and ev il* whereas the "pilgrim s" — the "hollow men" - - made cau tio n a "p rin c i p l e ." They objected not to the slaughter* not the savagery* but simply the "unsound" method. In h is dying cry — "The h o rro r; The h o rro r:" — Kurtz had Judged the universe and h im self. Marlow responded to th a t cry : True* he [KurtzO had made th a t l a s t strid e * he had stepped back over the edge* w hile I had been perm itted to draw back my h e s i t a t i n g fo o t. And perhaps In t h i s Is the whole d iffe re n c e ; perhaps a l l the wisdom* and a l l t r u t h , and a l l s in c e r ity are Ju st compressed Into th a t Inappreciable moment of time In which we s te p over the th resh o ld of the In v is ib le , (p. 7 2 ) That cry was "a moral v ic to ry paid fo r by Innumerable defeats* by abominable te rro rs * by abominable s a t i s f a c tio n s ." (p. 7 2 ) Conrad's g re a t c o n trib u tio n s were th a t he showed w r ite r s how the "night Journey" to s e l f could be In co r porated Into l i te r a t u r e * h is concept of man as an "orphan" who defined him self by h is a b i l i t y to confront the dark ness* h is use of place as a s p i r i t u a l and p sy choanaly tical proving ground. On the r u s tin g l i t t l e steamer In the heat* he became aware of a voyage as a psychic quest during which the voyager could d isco v er what the Junglan p sy ch o lo g ists c a l l the "shadow." I t was a r i t u a l which had to be undergone by a l l men who would be saved from the c r ip p lin g sense of a lie n a tio n by the powers of the unconscious. Like o th e r p rim itiv e t r i b a l r i t u a l s , the Journey was a means of tak in g the I n i t i a t e back to "the i deepest lev e l" of ego -S elf I d e n tity , fo rc in g him to experience a symbolic death a f t e r which he was r e b o r n . 51 The Idea th a t hope fo r a s p i r i t u a l r e b ir th begins with the death of the ego, so prominent a p a rt of the medieval world view, has become a dominant m otif in the th in k in g of our own tim e, as the works of Norman 0. Brown and o th e r "prophets of the c o u n te r-c u ltu re " In d ic a te . In Love's Body, Life Against Death, and o th e r works he holds man's "In cap acity to accept death" to be a t the core of human n eu ro sis since i t co rru p ts and p e rv e rts the death I n s t i n c t , tu rn in g I t Into " it s d i s t i n c t i v e l y human and d i s t i n c t i v e l y morbid f o r m . " 5 2 L ife, consequently, becomes a war a g a in s t death, with the Ironic consequence th a t death Is overcome only on co n d itio n th a t "the r e a l a c tu a li t y of l i f e pass in to . . . immortal and dead thin g s" — money, c i t i e s , m etals, monuments, and o th er " c iv iliz e d " sub lim atio n s, (pp. 186- 8 7 ) An ego stro n g enough to die could achieve re s u r r e c tio n and "tru e l i f e " : Symbolical consciousness begins with the p e r cep tio n of the In v is ib le r e a l i t y of our p resen t 26 s i t u a t i o n : we are dead and our l i f e la h id . Real l i f e Is l i f e a f t e r death, or r e s u r r e c tio n . The deadness w ith which we are dead here now is the r e a l death; of which l i t e r a l death is only a shadow, a bogey. L ite ra lism , and fu tu rism , are | to d i s t r a c t us from the r e a l i t y of the p r e s e n t .53 The Idea of s e l f - a n n l h n a t i o n as a phoenix path was ch allen g in g a t the end of World War I , which had made some i aware of the deadness In l i f e and the deadness of a u n i verse of thought forms. To become a liv in g presence Instead of the "bundle" of d a ily experiences Madame Blavatsky held modern, e g o is tic man to b e ^ was a l l th a t any waste land in h a b ita n t In one of h is "sepulch ral" c i t i e s could d e s ir e . Jung had warned th a t the way of Individu a tio n would not be easy, th a t the e g o 's Journey through the land of a rc h e ty p a l shadows would be a via cru cIs th a t Involved "an I n te n s if ic a tio n of s u ffe rin g , stru g g le and c o n f l i c t , and a le a rn in g how to s u f f e r , an experiencing of g u i l t and of p erso nal and even cosmic d i s i n t e g r a t i o n . "55 But only In t h i s way could the l i f e of the whole, the l i f e of " Se I f " be rea 1 iz e d . To follow the ro u te he mapped, the path th a t Conrad- Marlow had taken to The Heart of Darkness req u ired an enormous amount of physical and s p i r i t u a l courage. Secu l a r w rite r s - - even such "orphans" and "o u tsid ers" and "e x ile s" as James Joyce, E rnest Hemingway, Ford Madox 27 Ford, F. S co tt F itz g e ra ld , Norman Douglas — refused to r i s k the Journey, e i t h e r In s p i r i t or space. T. S. E l i o t, j i who had derived from Conrad and F ra z e r, the concept of the: ; i | I ! world as waste land populated by hollow men - - the c e n tr a l| metaphor of the tw en tieth century — sought a se p a ra te peace. Some w r ite r s were w illin g to r i s k a l l of s e l f In A frica, as Conrad had done, or In Mexico In order to bring back to w estern man th e symbols of s a lv a tio n . In those p rim itiv e p a r ts of the world — many of which were s t i l l labeled t e r r a incognita on Western maps - - they hoped to fin d the key to r e in te g r a tio n . They were not in te re s te d In chron olo gical prim itivism or under any delusion th a t wholeness Involved 'going native* In a tr o p ic a l p a ra d ise . What they sought, as Tucker has pointed out In A frica In Modern L i t e r a t u r e , was a c i v i l i z a t i o n th a t had not been "In fested with any of the mixed b le ss in g s of the modern I n d u s tria liz e d w o rld ."57 By a c tu a lly experiencing the p rim itiv e and the In e x p lica b le , one might come to a knowledge of S elf: "not only of o n e 's p resen t but of the p a st from whloh one has emerged," was the way Oraham Qreene expressed I t . 58 Oreene f e l t th a t th e outward Journey In space would be p a ra lle le d by an Inner Journey 28 of death and r e s u r r e c tio n . For him and f o r o th er w rite r s who went to A frica and Mexico, the Journey was the geo g ra p h ic a l eq u iv alen t of psychoanalysis, having as goal the enlargement of the soul Instead of the ego. I | D. H, Lawrence, who tra v e le d to Mexico In search of a so u l, ranked what might be c a lle d "geo-an aly sls" f a r hig her than psychoanalysis as the remedy fo r the wide spread s p i r i t u a l m alaise. Psychoanalysts have been of no help a t a J l , he a s s e rte d : "they have shown the g re a te s t f e a r of a l l , of the Innermost primeval place In man, where Qod Is , I f He Is anywhere.”59 He, to o , used A frica as the metaphor fo r the "dark co n tin en t" of h im self, which had to be "untamed" to fre e the Qod th a t Is th e re : The w ild c re a tu re s are coming fo rth from the dark e s t A frica Inside us. In the nigh t you can hear them bellow ing. I f you are a big game-hunter, lik e B illy Sunday, you may shoulder your elephant gun. But since the f o r e s t Is Inside a l l of us, and In every f o r e s t t h e r e ’s a whole assortm ent of big game and dangerous c r e a tu re s , I t ' s one a g a in s t a thousand. We've managed to keep c le a r of the d ark est A frica Inside us fo r a long tim e. We've been so busy fin d in g the North Pole and co nverting the Patagonians, loving our neighbour and d ev isin g new means of ex term in atin g him, lis te n in g - I n and s h u ttin g o u t. But now, my dear re a d e r, Nemesis is blowing h is nose. And muffled ro a rin g s are heard out of d a rk e st A frica, with s t i f l e d s h rie k s , (p. 756) Lawrence and Oreene and Katherine Anne P o rter and ; Malcolm Lowry, who pioneered the search f o r darkness in 29 Mexico th a t has since challenged so many o th e rs , possessed th a t sym bolical consciousness th a t made them determined to see the " r e a lity " th a t l i e s beyond the world of " s h e lls ." In C a b b a listic t r a d i t i o n , they were a c tin g out the Messianic Journey Into the Kellpah — the p i t of demons — to re le a s e the power necessary to redeem man k in d .^ 0 They recognized th a t what they were attem pting s p i r i t u a l l y was a Journey from d e s p a ir through h e ll In o rder to catch a glimpse — I f they survived — of a new heaven. The Idea was a p p a llin g to r a tio n a l men. Typical of the e a rly re a c tio n was th a t of Aldous Huxley, who l a t e r r a d ic a lly re v ise d h is view. Following the path of h is frie n d Lawrence through the S ta te of Oaxaca, he found the d e so la te town of Mlhuatlrfn a symbol of the f o lly of the quest — with I t s d ila p id a te d church shored up "hope le s s ly " with poles and beams, s t r e e t s of h a lf-ru in e d houses, a dusty plaza where " to rto ise -e y e d " Indian women s a t In the g la rin g sun, each competing with the o th ers to s e l l her sm all s to r e of beans, tomatoes, and plm lentos: The s p e c ta c le , I c o n fess, always made my blood run p re tty co ld . Not so cold as the sp ec ta cle of an I n d u s tr ia l town In Lancashire, say, or the Ruhr ( th a t has power to c h i l l the h e a rt of man to I t s a b so lu te ze ro ); but co ld , heaven knows, enough. Hie I n d u s tr ia l town Is In ten sely and 30 p o s itiv e ly , whereas th ese Mexican p laces are only n eg a tiv ely a p p a llin g . They are a p p a llin g not so much because of what Is th e re as because of what I s n 't th e re . A Black Country town Is a f e a r f u l s in of commission; Mlhuatl&n and I t s kind are sin s of om ission. Omission of the mental and the s p i r i t u a l , of a l l th a t Is not day-to-day animal l i v i n g .» 1 Indeed, he concluded h is account with lo ath in g : "If Mlhuatl$n were the only p o ssib le a l t e r n a ti v e to Mlddles- borough, then r e a lly one might as w ell commit s u ic id e ." (p. 2 0 8 ) What Huxley did not take Into account was th a t th a t was s p i r i t u a l l y , I f not l i t e r a l l y , p re c is e ly what the Mexico voyagers had In mind In order th a t the S elf might r i s e from the phoenix pyre, Mexico w as,In a sense, h e ll; but I t a lso o ffe red a glimpse of heaven. And the Journey through h e ll was p re fe ra b le to w aiting with the oth er hollow men In the v e s tib u le , with no hope of re s u r re c tio n . The l i t e r a r y pilg rim s considered in t h i s paper used the language of r e li g i o n In speaking of t h e i r Mexican venture and o f t h e i r a r t i s t i c purpose. A s t r i k i n g example of th a t Is a passage from a l e t t e r w ritte n by Malcolm Lowry about Under the Volcano: The seene Is Mexico, the meeting p lace , according to some, of mankind I t s e l f , pyre of Bierce and springboard of Hart Crane, the ago-old arena of r a c i a l and p o l i t i c a l c o n f li c ts of every n a tu re , and where a c o lo rfu l n a tiv e people of genius 31 have a r e lig io n th a t we can roughly describe as one of death , so th a t I t is a good place to s e t our drama of man's s tru g g le between the powers of darkness and l i g h t . I t s geographical remote ness from us, as w ell as the closen ess of I t s I problems to our own, w ill a s s i s t the tragedy each I In I t s own way. W e can see I t as the world | I t s e l f , or the Garden of Eden, or both a t once. Or we can see I t as a kind of tim e le ss symbol of the world on which we can place the Garden of Eden, the Tower of Babel and Indeed anything e ls e we p le a se . I t Is p a r a d ls a l: I t Is unques tio n a b ly I n f e r n a l . 62 At the time of p u b lic a tio n , none of the books and s t o r i e s th a t r e s u lte d from the " g e o -a n a ly tlc a l" tr a v e ls enjoyed g re a t success although some have come to since th e n .63 P a rtly , th a t Is because the language In which they were w ritte n — the language of r e li g i o n , the language of "soul" - - did not become the popular Idiom u n t i l the 1960s and 1970s. Although they ex e rcised a profound Impact on B r itis h and American w ritin g of the l a s t fiv e decades, of no le s s Importance the w rite r s were a lso prophets of to d a y 's " c o u n te r-c u ltu re ." They expressed In symbol and myth p re c is e ly what the apocalyp tic generation la ta lk in g — o fte n Incoherently — about and groping — sometimes v io le n tly — toward. They made c le a r the nega tiv e n atu re of some of our most cherished I n s t i t u t i o n s : r e li g i o u s , p o l i t i c a l , s o c ia l . They defined the need to "untame" the s e l f by acknowledging the I r r a t i o n a l , by reg ard in g fan tasy and fe e lin g and myth as r e a l i t i e s every J j 32 b i t as s ig n if ic a n t as logic and thought and documented r e p o r ts . T heir lo ath in g of p o l i t i c a l a c tio n th a t has as i I t s goal power and personal aggrandizement Is r e f le c te d i j In the a n a rc h ic a l slogans of the Ylpples and th e a n t i - i i E stab llsh m e n ta rlan s. T heir yearning fo r a new kind of i d iv in e communion Is r e f le c te d In the hymns of the "Jesus Freaks" and the chorus of Qodapel. T heir search fo r a " c o lle c tiv e " Id e n tity to r e in te g r a te a lie n a te d man Is m irrored In the communes th a t have sprung up across the country. The reverence fo r e a rth and I ts "sacred" p lace s, the acceptance of dualism , the I n te r e s t In Indian and Chinese mysticism (what campus Is w ithout i t s transcenden t a l m editatio n c e n te r? ), the c u ltiv a tio n of such p rim itiv e v irtu e s as bread-making and weaving . . . a l l of these are now common property of the young. And most of a l l , th e re Is the Idea of soul as a property to be acquired from the e th n ic m in o ritie s : the American In d ian s, the Afro-Americans, the Mexlcan-Amerlcans. From the standpo in t of c u ltu re as w ell as l i t e r a t u r e , the q u est th a t led the psychic voyagers to Mexico and to A frica was an adventure of transcendent Importance. 33 NOTES CHAPTER I A n tig o n e ( t r a n s l a t e d by Dudley P i t t s and R o b e rt F i t z g e r a l d ) , C h a r a c te r and C o n f l i c t . An I n t r o d u c t i o n to Drama, ed . Alvin B. K ernan, fNew York: H a r c o u r t, B race & W orld, I n c . , 1963)* P* 2 7 8. Q uoted, W ill D u ra n t, The R e n a is sa n c e (New York: Simon and S c h u s t e r , 1953)* p. T<58. See Love's Body (New York: Random House, 1 9 6 6). In th at book, Norman 0. Brown draws ex ten siv e ly on Freud and Blake and E astern philosophers to support h is theory th a t man's hope l i e s In ending the antimony between mind and body. The Greening o f America fNew York: Random F ju se . 1970) i 77~Z 2 V : ' T feTcK holds an e s s e n ti a l aspect <j£ the c u ltu re o f Consciousness I I Is the e f f o r t to " r e s to r e , p r o t e c t, and f o s te r human consciousness. I t Is most Important because I t s aim Is nothing le s s than to re s to r e man's awareness o f h im self, o f o th er people, o f n a tu re , o f h is own l i f e . I t seeks to make man, In everythin g th a t he does or ex p erien ces, more a l i v e ." (p. 2 2 5) For a d i s c u s s i o n o f T i l l i c h on e s tra n g e m e n t, see Kenneth D. E b e rh a rd , The A lie n a te d C h r i s t i a n : A Theology o f A l i e n a t i o n ( P h i l a d e l p h i a : A P ilg r im P r e s s Book, T571) pp. I 0 3 -1 I 0 . p ie Dying S e lf (Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan U n iv e rsity P re s s , l9&9), PP* 11-19. F a ir says th a t In nature we fin d lam inated s tr u c tu r e s , w ith one la y e r giving r i s e to an o th er. He fe e ls th at in man two new "la y e rs" have been added to liv in g n atu re: ( 1 ) th a t o f more o r le s s in d iv id u ated waking conscious s e l f o f men s e v e ra lly ; (2 ) th a t o f more or le s s d i s t i n c t c u l t u r a l realm s, or c i v i l i z a t i o n s , produced by men c o l l e c t i v e l y . In the f i r s t — the s u b c o rtlc a l - - are I n s tin c tiv e fe e lin g s ; In the second/ the n e o c o rtlc a l, we find learned behavior and th in k in g . Both compete fo r the c o n tro l o f the organism In a c o n te st between reason and impulse. 34 7. " i n t r o d u c t i o n to Memoirs o f the F o re ig n L e g io n , n P hoenix Two: U n c o lie c te T a~ tJnpubllahed7 and O th e r Works by D. fr. Law rence, e d . W arren R o b e rta and H arry Moore (New York: The V ik in g P r e s s , 1968) , pp. 357-58* 8 . "The Marriage of Heaven and H e ll," Poems and Prophe c ie s (Hew Yorks E. P. Dutton & Company, I n c . , 1939) pTTT6 . 9. Quoted, Loren E ls le y , The Firmament o f Time (New York: Athereum i 9 6 0) , p. 61. In th a t work, E ls le y c a l l s a tte n tio n to the Coleridge le c tu re in 1919 in which the poet had p ro te ste d the r e f u s a l of p h ilso p h ers o f the l a s t wo or three c e n tu rie s to accept the notion o f man*s uniqueness and to acknowledge h is so u l. The subsequent C oleridge quotation about the alms o f L y ric a l B allads was taken from B lographla L l t e r a r l a (New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, i n c . , 1939)j p. 1 6 1. 10. W alter H. E v e rt, A esth etic and Myth In the P oetry o f Keats (P rin ceto n , New Je rse y : P rin ceton U n iv e rsity P re s s , 1965)* PP* 6-15* E vert says th a t Keats was attem pting in h is work to re s to r e " c u ltu r a l h e a lth " by s u b s t i tu ti n g in the place o f "bigoted purltanism " j the myths and symbols o f an c ie n t Greece and by tr a n s m ittin g a knowledge of god - - man*s "illu m in a tio n in the n a tu ra l w orld." 11. The Dying Self» p. 116. 12. Thomas C a r l y l e , "S ig n s o f the Times" S e le c te d W orks» e d . by J u l i a n Symons (C am bridge, M a ss.: H arv ard U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s , 1957). 13. P ast and p re se n t (New York: L ovell, C o ry ell & Company, n . d . ) , p. 143- 14. John Henry Newman, Apologia Pro V ita Sua (New York: Doubleday, 1 9 6 2) , pp. 31y-20 * 15. " S e lf-R e lia n c e ," The S o c ia l P h ilo so p h e rs, ed. Saxe Commlns and Robert N. L ln sc o tt (^ew York: Random House, 1 9 4 7 ), PP. 386-87. 1 6 . "N ature," American L i te r a t u r e , ed. Richard P o ir ie r and William L. Vance (Boston: L i t t l e , Brown and Company, 1970), I , p. 466. 35 17. Leo Marx, The Machine In the Garden (New York: Oxford U n iv ersity > r e s s , 19b7), P* 2 0 3 . 18. Marx p o in ts out in The Machine In the Garden th a t even before Adams had had h is " h i s t o r i c a l neck . . . broken in the G allery o f the Machines a t the P aris E xposition o f 1900, he had been aware o f the p e r i l s o f the machine. In a l e t t e r to C harles Adams in 1862 he had w ritte n : "I firm ly b elieve th at before many c e n tu rie s more, science w ill be the master o f man. The engines he w i l l have invented have the ex isten ce o f mankind in i t s power, and the human race commit s u ic id e by blowing up the w orld." (p. 3 5 0) 19. The Guns o f August (New York: The Macmillan Company. i gsg), p. ro r. — 20. The Shaping o f the Modern Mind (New York: The New American L ibrary o f World L ite r a tu r e , I n c ., 1953)# p. 255. In that e x c e lle n t d is c u ssio n , Brin ton p o in ts out th at democracy has a s u p r a - p o l it i c a l Job to do i f i t is to su rv iv e: "The mass o f mankind, even In the West, have never been able to take the tra g ic view w i^iout the help o f a p erson al r e l i g i o n , a r e lig io n h ith e r to always tra n sc e n d e n ta l, su per n a tu r a l, o th er-w o rld ly . Somehow democracy, i f i t is not to re tu rn w holeheartedly to C h r is tia n ity (which many today would have i t do), must take on the ca re o f s o u ls ." (p. 2 5 5) 21. T, S. E l i o t , The Complete Poems and Plays 1909-1950 (New York: H a rc o u rt,B ra c e & Company, i9 5 o J, p. 5b. 22. For an account o f the postwar a tt i tu d e s and e x p e ri ments see William York T in d a ll, Forces in Modern B r i t is h L ite ra tu re 1885- 195& (New York: Vintage- Books, 1 9 5 0/. 23. Apologia Fro V ita Sua. p. 320. 24. Norman 0. Brown, L ife A gainst Death (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan U n iv ersity P re s s , 1959) P* 217. In th at account of L u th e r's p o s itio n , Brown quotes T ro e lts c h 's d e s c rip tio n . 36 25* Brown, In the ch ap ter on "The P ro te s ta n t E ra ," s tr e s s e s L u th e r's awareness o f the D evil and h is d is p o s itio n to f ig h t him, In c o n tra s t to l a t e r P ro te s ta n t theologies which lack a " r e a l sense o f the D ev il," Brown says. p. 217. 26. L u th e r q u o te d , L if e A g a in s t D e a th , p. 215* 27* For a d iscu ssio n o f the in flu en ce o f the C ab ballst w ritin g s on Malcolm Lowry and — by im p licatio n — o th e r w rite r s who sought s im ila r experiences In Mexico, see P erle E p ste in , The P riv a te Labyrinth of Malcolm Lowry (New York! H o it. R inehart and Winston, 1969)7 P- 12. 28. "The Stream o f C onsciousness," American L ite r a t u r e , ed. Richard P o ir ie r and William L. Vance ('Boston! L i t t l e , Brown and Company, I n c . , 1970), I I , p. 253* 29* I b id . p. 463. James s tr e s s e s the importance of an a f f e c tiv e a t t i t u d e toward the universe and toward o th e rs In an e x tr a - o r d ln a r lly modern s p i r i t . 30. Norman 0. Brown, L ife Against D eath. See e s p e c ia lly 1 the c h a p t e r s , "The E x c re m e n ta l V isio n " and " F i l t h y I Lucre." | 31. Freud, "Dostevsky and P a r r i c id e ," quoted, Love's Body, P* 151* 32. Nonetheless h is c o n trib u tio n s even to that group were im pressive. As L ionel T r i l l i n g has pointed o u t, F reud 's Influence on modern l i t e r a t u r e is so pervasive and so g re a t that " i t s e x ten t is sc a rc e ly to be determ ined." The L ib e ra l Im agination (Garden C ity , New York! Doubleday & dompany. I n c ., 1957), p* 36. 33* D. H. Law rence, F a n t a s i a o f the U nconscious and Psychoanalysis o f t h e Unconsclous [Melbournej William He1nemann L td ., 19 b l) , "in tro d u c tio n . 34. C. G. Jung, "Approaching the Unconscious," Man and His Symbols New York! D e l l p u b lis h in g Company, I n c . , 1 9 6 9) , pT ”3'6. 37 35* I b id , p. 37. The same p oint Is being made by many psych olog ists today who co n sid er the lo ss of the I n s tin c tiv e fu nctio ns o f the brain a reason fo r violence and h o rro r. For example, David Jonas and Doris Klein say In Man-Child, A Study o f the I n f a n t i l lz a tlo n of Man (New fo rk : Hcflraw^tllll Book Company, 1 9 7 0J th at ,lln the same way th at we are slowly lo sin g some o th e r p h y sical organs such as h a i r , te e th , or to es, so are we now lo s in g some of those fu n ctio ns o f the old brain governing i n s t i n c t s . Our p aleo co rtex Is on the way to becoming v e s t i g i a l , with the r e s u l t th at k i l l i n g (ranging from in d iv id u a l murder, through mass executions and war, to the wholesale s la u g h te r of a race) w ithin our species has become as much o f a unique phenomenon In the animal kingdom as our cap acity fo r evolving a b s tra c t p rin c ip le s and Id e a ls , (p. 6 0 ) 3 6 . Jung, p. 41. 37. Ju n g , P s y c h o lo g ic a l T y p es, q u o te d by V ic t o r W h ite, O .P .. S o u l and Psyche (New York: H arp er & B r o t h e r s , i 9 6 0) , p. 1 7 8. 3 8 . Soul and Psyche, p. 178. White s tr e s s e s the point th at Jung conceives o f In d iv id u atio n as th is p o s itiv e r e la tio n and not as Individualism and the apotheosis o f Id io s y n c ra s ie s . 39* The Qoldan Bough (New York: The Macmillan Company, 194iy, P- 2< 40. P e r ils o f the S o u l, The World View o f a T z o tz ll TrTdlan fflew York: The Free Press o f Qlencoe. I n c . . 1901), p. 149. The T z o tz lls , lik e many o th e r p rim itiv e people, b eliev e that man has two so u ls: the Wavhel - - the animal soul th a t Is m ortal; the C h 'u lc l - - the I n d e s tr u c tib le so u l. I t is the l a t t e r th at T s involved In the te a c h in g -le a rn in g pro cess. 41. "The Discovery o f P la c e ,” The Art o f the Essay (New York: Thomas Crowell Company, 1 9 0 9), p. 0 9 . 42. E lla d e . quoted by Gerald Sykes, ”New York As Axis Mundl. C enter Report (December, 1971)# p. 5. 43. Quoted, Robert C. L eC lair, Young Henry James (New York: Bookman A sso c ia te s, 1955), p . 3*. 38 44. , W illiam James, The V a r ie tie s o f R eligious Experience (New York: Random House, 1929)» p. 157. 45* Henry James. The Major Phase (New York: Oxford U n iv ersity P re s s , i9t>3), p. 143. 46. "Geography and Some E x p lo re rs." Last Ebba y s (London: J . M. Dent & Sons, L td ., 1926), p. 24. 47. Conrad, quoted by A lbert J . Guerard, "From L ife to A r t," Heart o f Darkness, ed. Robert Kimbrough (New York: w. w. Norton & Company, 1963)» P* 129. 48. J e s s ie Conrad, " L e tte r to the E d ito r of The London M ercury." re p rin te d Joseph Conrad's Heart o f Darkness ed. Leonard F. Dean (Englewood C l i f f s , New je rs e y : F re n tic e -H a ll, I n c . , i 9 6 0) , p. 9 3 . 49. Edward G arnett quoted, Kimbrough e d itio n , p. 125. 50. Kimbrough e d itio n , p. 4 l. A major theme o f Heart of Darkness Is the c o rru p tin g e f f e c t o f h i s t o r i c a l time. In c o n tra s t to the "Pilgrim s" and the in h a b ita n ts of the se p u lc h ra l c i t i e s o f Europe w aiting to receive t h e i r lo o t, the n a tiv e s who had no sense of time a t a l l were the tru ly human beings. 51. Joseph L. Henderson, "Ancient Myths and Modern Man," C. G. Jung, Man and His Symbols, p. 121. 52. L ife Against Death, p. 284. 53. Love's Body, p. 207. 54. H. P. B lavatsky, The Key to Theosophy (London: The Theosophlcal P ub lish in g Company, L td ., 1 8 8 9)# p. 34. 55- Soul and Psyche, p. 179- 5 6 . The F isher King, the impotent lord o f the waste land, can be freed from the curse th a t has maimed him and sickened h is land only by a knight brave enough to accept the challenge o f the g r a i l quest and ask the meaning of the symbols in the c a s t l e . 57. Martin Tucker, A fric a In Modern L ite ra tu re (New York: F rederick Ungar P ublishin g Company, 19&7), p. 5- 39 J^urne^^w lthout Maps (London4 William Helnemann 59* "The Novel and the p e e lin g s ," Phoenix. p. 759* 60. The P riv a te Labyrinth o f Malc61m Lowry, p, 9 . There, the M essianic voyager would re le a s e holy power, by ta s tin g o f sin In order to absorb the h o liness looked In s id e ." 6 1. Beyond the Mexloue Bav (New York: Vintage Books, 1 9 6 6) , p. 2 0 7 . 62. S elected l e t t e r s o f Malcolm Lowry, ed. by Harvey B re it ancl M argerle rionner Lowry (P h ild e lp h la : J . B. L lpplncott Company, 19^5)# p. 67 6 3 . Warren Frenchfs e x p la n a tio n , as I t r e la te s to Malcolm Lowry, Is th a t when I t f i r s t appeared In the 19^7, Under the Volcano was recognised c h ie fly by an e n th u s ia s tic but r e l a t i v e l y sm all band of adm irers; I t did not appeal "to a public th a t was fed up w ith trag ed y ." However, during the 1960s i t enjoyed a co nsiderable re v iv a l la rg e ly because o f " i t s almost c l i n i c a l study o f a lie n a tio n " and because Lowry has come to be regarded as "one o f the few a r t i s t s w ith the ta le n t and courage to develop a tra g ic v isio n to match the tim es." The F o r tie s ; F ic tio n . Poetry and Drama (Deland, F lo rid a : E v e re tt Edwards, IncY, 19&9) * p. CHAPTER I I MEXICO AS METAPHOR 40 41 The c o n q u e st o f Mexico was one o f th e supreme a c h iev e m en ts o f modern m an.1 Less th a n t h i r t y y e a r s a f t e r Columbus had a l t e r e d th e m edieval m otto o f G i b r a l t a r from "ne p lu s u l t r a 1 ' t o '’more beyond," Hern^n C o r t i s and h i s band o f ab o u t f i v e hundred a d v e n tu r e r s a c c e p te d th e i 1 c h a lle n g e and s e iz e d th e r i c h e s t o f th e new w orld em p ires ; f o r th e S panish k in g . j One o f h i s men, w ith l i t t l e e l s e of v alu e to le av e to h i s d e s c e n d a n ts , s a t down in h i s e i g h t y - f o u r t h y e a r to w r i t e o u t an I n h e r i t a n c e : "my tr u e s t o r y . " 2 B e rn a l D{az d e l C a s t i l l o ' s remembrances w ere, In d eed , a n o b le le g a c y . 1 ! His H l s t o r l a v e rd a d e ra de la c o n q u ls ta de la Nueva Espana | r e c r e a t e s v i v i d l y th e a d v e n tu re s t h a t le d from th e beaches! o f V e ra c ru z , where C o rte s had burned th e s h ip s to p re v e n t j t u r n i n g b ack , up th e to w e rin g m ountains to th e high I p l a t e a u and v i c t o r y . The pages a r e crammed w ith p e rso n s and e v e n ts to o Im probable f o r f i c t i o n . By am azing c o i n c id e n c e , th e a d v e n tu r e r s d is c o v e re d a S panish s a i l o r I who had been shipw recked y e a r s b e fo re and who had a c q u ire d a Mayan w if e , Mayan ways, and a command o f th e Mayan la n g u a g e . Even more am azin g ly , they d is c o v e r e d a b ea u - j t l f u l I n d ia n p r i n c e s s , who had been s o ld In to s la v e r y by h e r schem ing m other and who spoke both Mayan and th e j i j I k2 language of the Aztecs. MaiInche, who became the cap t a i n ’s m is tr e s s , unlocked the mystery of communication a l l along the way. By almost u n believable coincidence, the Spaniards a rriv e d In the very year s e t as the date of ! ; re tu r n of the g re a t Mexican d e ity — Q u etzalcoatl - - and j the bearded s tra n g e r was held to be none o th er than "the f a i r g o d ,” who had come home. The audacity and courage of the Spaniards seems now almost superhuman. Hopelessly outnumbered, they e n lis te d the d is g ru n tle d T laxcalans as a l l i e s . When the small s to re of gunpowder gave ou t, men cllmed the volcanoes to g e t sulphur and s a l t p e t e r from the c r a t e r to manufacture more. They demanded and received In c red ib le wealth from t h e i r h o sts and v ic tim s. They seized and imprisoned the emperor, Moctezuma I I , In h is palace In the c ity of T en o c h tltlan — a c ity la r g e r than any In Europe and of such grandeur th a t the s o ld ie r s considered I t to be "lik e the enchantments they t e l l of In the legends of Amadls." (p. 2 6 9 ) Some of them, Bernal Diaz remembered, "even asked whether the th in g s th a t we saw th ere were not a dream" (p. 270) The e x p lo it became legend In every country In Western Europe. Even In England. For although Cortfes and h is 43 men were of " d e te sta b le " P ap ist persu asio n and Spanish o r i g i n « were they not white? Had they not triumphed over n o n -C h rlatlan savages to s e t up white r e l i g i o n , white ' government, send money in to white c o ffe rs ? ■ The vanquished, along with t h e i r a r t s , t h e i r c u ltu r e , t h e i r b e l i e f s , were re je c te d almost e n t i r e l y by English speaking people on both sid e s of the A tla n tic as I r r e l e vant and In c o n se q u e n tia l.3 During the seventeenth century some i n t e r e s t In Mexico and the Mexicans was evinced by P u ritan a p o s tle s lik e Cotton Mather and Samuel Sew all, who speculated about the p o s s i b i li t y th a t "Qod would open the Mexican F ou ntain," I . e . P ro te s ta n tiz e C entral and South ; America.1 * Nothing came of t h a t , however, and very l i t t l e a t a l l In the way of Inform ation about the lands the Spaniards had won and the people they had conquered was known In England and America u n t i l 1777* In th a t year William Robertson, the S c o ttis h s c h o la r, published h is H istory of America, which, as Stanley Williams has pointed o u t, became "a landmark" in both c o u n trie s , (p. 2 6 ) More I n te r e s t developed a f t e r William H lckllng P r e s c o tt'a d e ta ile d and romantic h i s t o r i e s of The Conquest of Mexico and The Conquest of Peru appeared In 1043 and 1047. But so f a r as most Anglos were concerned, even i | those who liv e d In Mexican t e r r i t o r y or In land ad jacen t & E 1 i L . _ to I t , the Indians and t h e i r c u ltu re had been re le g a te d to o b liv io n In 1521, when the l a s t Aztec emperor was captured and ( l a t e r ) k il le d and the "tru e cross" s e t up permanently; on the pyramid of the A ztecs' patron and war god, i H u l t z l l lp o c h t ll . P re s c o tt, to be su re, had given some c r e d it to the Indigenous people fo r courage and s k i l l , although h is c h ie f emphasis is on t h e i r " f ie rc e and w arlike q u a l i t i e s , " t h e i r "barbarous" r e lig io u s r i t u a l s . He held t h e i r d efeat an event " l i t t l e sh o rt of m iraculous," on which men of goodwill and reason could c o n g ra tu la te t h e m s e l v e s . 5 In h is "R eflectio n s" on the f a te of the Aztec empire, he says th a t I t may serve: . . . as a s t r i k i n g proof th a t a government, which does not r e s t on the sympathies of I t s s u b je c ts , cannot long abide; th a t human I n s t i tu tio n s , when not connected w ith human p ro s p e r ity and p ro g re ss, must f a l l , — I f not before the In creasin g l i g h t of c i v i l i z a t i o n , by the hand of v io len ce; by v iolence from w ith in , I f not from w ith o u t. And who s h a ll lament t h e i r f a l l ? (p. 6 1 5 ) Who, Indeed? C e rta in ly not the Englishmen and Ameri cans who had begun an Invasion of L atin America, p a r ti c u l a r l y Mexico, In the n in eteen th century under the banner of "p ro sp e rity and progress" - - fo r them selves. They b u i l t r a il r o a d s , worked mines to e x tr a c t g re a t tre a s u re s In Jewels and m inerals (about h a lf the w o rld 's supply of s i l v e r was ta k e n from M exico). They sank o i l w e l l s , ta p p e d r i c h f o r e s t s f o r c h i c l e and v a lu a b le woods; "mined" th e s o i l f o r s u g a r , c o f f e e , g r a i n s , and o th e r c ro p s ; e s t a b l i s h e d v a s t h a c ie n d a s f o r r a i s i n g c a t t l e . The i r e s o u r c e s o f th e c o u n try were s o ld t o th e h i g h e s t b i d d e r s , ; who were su p p o rte d by a s u c c e s s io n o f governm ents f r i e n d l y j to o u t s i d e I n v e s t o r s . As Henry Bamford P arkes has p o in te d o u t in A H is to r y o f M exicot "whenever r e v o l u t i o n i n t e r r u p te d th e flow o f d iv id e n d s , t h e r e was th e t h r e a t o f a f o r e ign Inva s I o n . " ^ So agreeable and accep tab le was the notion th a t Mexico was r i g h tl y plundered th a t people who p ro te ste d were regarded as t r a i t o r s . That was as tru e In the United S ta te s as I t was In government and fin a n c ia l c i r c le s In England, Prance, A u stria, and Mexico, I t s e l f . Abraham L in co ln 's p o l i t i c a l c a re e r almost foundered on the Issue of the United S ta te s Invasion of 1846. Not even h is devoted frie n d Herndon could understand h is f ie r c e opposi tio n to the war; and In meetings in h is home s t a t e and In e d i t o r i a l s In I l l i n o i s newspapers, he was held to be "a second Benediot A r n o l d P e w , except Ralph Waldo Emerson, expressed concern when Henry David Thoreau was Imprisoned f o r re fu s in g to pay taxes to support the Mexican War. Thoreau considered th a t "the work of com paratively a few In d iv id u als uslt.g ;;he standin g government as t h e i r t o o l ." 8 Thoreau was probably r i g h t about th a t and probably wrong when he a s s e rte d th a t the people would not have consented to a war a g a in s t Mexico I f they had been allowed to express t h e i r views. An a t t i t u d e toward Mexico, s t i l l very p re v alen t In t h i s cou ntry, had been e s ta b lis h e d by e a rly c h ro n ic le rs , w rite rs of memoirs and romances. This a t t i t u d e , as C ecil Robinson has pointed out In With the Ears of S tra n g e rs , was "one of contempt fo r Mexico's Ineptness w ith machinery and In d iffe re n c e to tech n o lo g ical p r o g r e s s . R e p r e s e n t a t i v e c h ro n ic le rs lik e James Ohio P a t t le , a Kentucky mountain man who wandered through the S outhw est,1® and George W ilkins Kendall, who provided a N arrativ e of the Texan Santa Fe E x p ed itio n . 11 re in fo rc e d American p u rita n p re ju d ice s a g a in s t persons of a c u ltu re which placed le s s emphasis on t h r i f t , hard work, n ea tn e ss, and the r e je c t io n of p le a su re . Mexicans were held to be cowards, l i a r s , th ie v e s , murderers — walking examples of a l l the Anglo-Saxon warnings about a m ingling of ra c e s. Even so s o p h is tic a te d an observer as John W . Audubon took th a t a t t i t u d e , owning up to "a h atre d of a l l th ings Mexican." 12 His Western J o u rn a ls , as Robinson has pointed o u t, are " f u l l of accounts of Mexican d e p ra v ity ." (p. 54) 47 Audubon, of course, was a f fe c te d by the s p i r i t of n atio n alism th a t a ffe c te d so many Americans during the i war y e a r s . Some few, however, did o b ject to the popular p ic tu re of Mexico and the no tion th a t I t was a mine to be ex- | p lo lte d . Among them was the S co ttIsh -b o rn wife of Angel Calderbn de la Barca, Spanish m in is te r to Mexico and to the United S ta te s . A s e n s i ti v e , w itty , charming woman, Madame Calder&n shared h er In s ig h ts Into Mexico with such frie n d s as Tlcknor, Longfellow, P re s c o tt, and Lowell. In a s e r i e s of l e t t e r s th a t P re sc o tt In s is te d be made a v a i l able to o th e rs In book form ,1^ She d escrib ed v iv id ly the people, the landscape, and — Im portantly since she was no s u p e r f i c i a l t r a v e l e r — the s p i r i t of the p lace . Her L ife In Mexico During a Residence of Two Years was e x t r a o rd in a r ily d e ta ile d and Inform ative. As a consequence, Oeneral W infield S cott adopted I t as the o f f i c i a l guide f o r h is tro o p s during the 1847-48 Invasion. I t a ls o , and f o r the f i r s t tim e, brought to the a tt e n t i o n of l i t e r a r y people the ways In which the people of a d i f f e r e n t c u ltu re responded to ideas and symbols and the sp e c ia l q u a lity of t h e i r environm ent. She was haunted by the curious d iffe re n c e In tim e: U8 Here, ev ery th in g reminds us of the p a st; of the conquering Spaniards who seemed to b u ild fo r I e t e r n i t y , im pressing each work with t h e i r own s o lid , grave and r e lig io u s c h a ra c te r; of the triumphs of C atholicism ; and of the Indians when C ortes f i r s t s t a r t l e d them from t h e i r repose and stood before them lik e the f u lf illm e n t of a i h a I f - f o r g o tte n prophecy. I t is the p re se n t th a t seems lik e a dream, a pale r e f l e c t i o n of the p a s t . 1* * Another m id-century e x p lo re r was John Lloyd Stephens, a 3 ^-y ear-o ld Hew Jersey lawyer and In v e te ra te tr a v e le r . ; His In c id e n ts of Travel in Arabia, P etrae a, and the Holyland had a t t r a c te d a tt e n t i o n in 1 8 3 6; but when In c id e n ts of Travel In C en tral America, Chiapas, and Yucatan appeared fiv e years l a t e r , I t brought him in s ta n t fame. Within th re e months the book went through twelve e d itio n s . Madame C alder 6n, who sco ffed a t him fo r la n guage flaw s, was in te r e s te d c h ie fly In the Spanish p a st — e s s e n t i a l l y a medieval p a s t. Stephens focused on a p ast more remote and a p re se n t more e x o tic . He and F rederick Catherwood, the i l l u s t r a t o r , made people v iv id ly aware of the g lo r ie s of the an c ie n t Mayan c i v i l i z a t i o n and conveyed t h e i r fe e lin g of fa s c in a tio n and wonder about the modern Mayan Indians who liv e d with t h e i r "g ig an tic memorials of a m ysterious p e o p l e . "^5 Forced home by s ic k n e ss, Stephens and Catherwood , re tu rn e d to Mexico In l8 4 l to pursue t h e i r Journey of 4g d isco very. The book th a t re s u lte d — In c id e n ts of Travel In Yucatan — emphasized no le s s stro n g ly the "death ! c u ltu re " of Mexico th a t has been one of I t s p rin c ip a l ! a t t r a c t i o n s fo r modem w r ite r s . D escribing h is re a c tio n s | to an episode In a cemetery* he wrote: "With these people death Is merely one of the a c cid en ts of l i f e , but to the s tra n g e r In th a t country death Is the king of t e r r o r s . People of h is own tim e, lik e P re s c o tt, deplored the death obsession of Mexico, but they did respond to the evidence Stephens and Catherwood presented of a c i v i l i z a t i o n th a t had achieved g re a t h eig h ts In a r c h ite c tu r e , a r t , mathe m atics, astronomy, a g r ic u ltu r e , ceram ics, metal working, and o th er f i e l d s c e n tu rie s before the b ir th of C h ris t. Sylvanus Morley, the Mayan sc h o la r, has said th a t the w ritin g s of Stephens were c h ie fly re sp o n sib le f o r b ringing Maya c i v i l i z a t i o n to the a t t e n t i o n of the o u tsid e world and stim u la tin g e x p lo r a tio n s ,*7 Including the exped itio n s sen t by the Harvard U niversity Peabody Museum of Archae ology and Ethnology, which owns one of the w o rld 's g re a t c o lle c tio n s of Mayan a r t i f a c t s . Im portantly, Stephens a lso helped to shape the views of William Cullen Bryant; and B ryant, as e d ito r of the New York Evening Post and the United S ta te s Review and ; L ite ra ry Q az ette, as a popular w r ite r and much-ln-demand 50 l e c t u r e r , was In an e x c e l l e n t p o s i t i o n t o I n s p i r e an i e n th u sia s m f o r L a tin A m erica. He sh a re d th e I n t e r e s t of j I r v i n g , L o n g fello w , R u s s e l l , and o t h e r New E n g la n d e rs In S p ain ; how ever, u n lik e them, as S ta n le y W illia m s has j ! I p o in te d o u t in h i s e x c e l l e n t stu d y o f The S panish Back g ro u n d s o f American L i t e r a t u r e , B ry an t had "an I n te n s e i n t e r e s t in e v e r y t h in g p e r t a i n i n g to S panish A m e ric a ." 1® He d e s c r ib e d th e Conquest in h o s t i l e te rm s , p r a i s e d th e n i n e t e e n t h c e n tu ry e f f o r t s to a c h ie v e n a t i o n a l l i b e r t y , and denounced th e common view t h a t th e p e o p le o f L a tin America were "sav ag es e m b ro ile d In w a rs, p la g u e s , and f a m i n e s ." 1^ S tep h en s h e lp e d him to u n d e rs ta n d th e c u l t u r e ; so d l d J e s ^ M arla H e re d ia — a n o th e r f r e q u e n t v i s i t o r to th e o f f i c e s o f th e Evening P o st a f t e r B ry an t to o k o v e r th e e d i t o r s h i p in 1 8 2 5 .20 B ry an t i s o f t e n c r e d i t e d w ith h a v in g t r a n s l a t e d In to E n g lis h H e r e d i a 's re m a rk a b le poem, "N iagara" - - t h a t symbol o f " lo t e r r l f l c o y s u b lim e " t h a t lau n ch ed th e Romantic movement In L a tin American l i t e r a t u r e . 21 P o l i t i c a l l y , how ever, he s id e d a g a i n s t th e ro m a n tic s — and I m p e r i a l i s t s - - who mourned th e e x e c u tio n o f M ax im ilian , th e A u s tria n arch d u k e who had been s e t up by P ranoe a s Emperor o f M exico. R a th e r , he p r a i s e d B e n ito J u l r e z , th e Zapotec In d ia n who had r e c a p tu r e d c o n t r o l o f Mexico In i i 1 . 51 1868 - - a g a i n s t t h e e f f o r t s o f F r a n c e , E n g l a n d , S p a i n , a n d t h e r o y a l i s t s a n d I m p e r i a l i s t s I n M e x i c o . I Perhaps the most important s in g le Influence In i i i c re a tin g a wide I n te r e s t In Indtan-Mexlco was General ■ Lewis W allace's The F a ir God. And I t Is Ironic th a t I t should have been w ritte n by a man who took a lead ing p a rt in the American Invasion of Mexico in the 1840s. But Wallace was no ordinary "gringo" serviceman. As a youth he had come upon P r e s c o tt's h is to ry and had "devoured I t , p re face , t e x t , n o te s, and appendix," determ ining t h a t : "I would w rite , and the Conquest of Mexico should be my them e."^3 He learned Spanish so th a t he could read o th er accounts, and he was w ell prepared fo r people and place when he went to Mexico to serve with the Invasion fo rc e s . Years l a t e r , when he s a t down to w rite h is book, the fa m ilia r conquest theme was rep laced by a new one: I t Is the vanquished who are the heroes. The book ends not with a trium phal march of C ortes, but with h is ro u t during La Hoche T r ls te — "the sad nig h t" in which I t appeared th a t the Spaniards had been u t t e r l y defeated and In which they gave way, b r i e f l y , to d e s p a ir. The book Is not a reworking of P r e s c o tt's account, but th a t of Fernando Alva de I x t l l l x o o h l t l - - a kinsman of the tr a ito r o u s | Texcocan prince who had marched sid e by side with Cortes 52 a g a in s t h is own p e o p l e . ^ P re sc o tt had drawn ex ten siv ely on I x t l l l x o c h l t l fo r m a te ria l about the customs, t r a d i t i o n s , l i t e r a t u r e , and h is to ry of the an c ie n t Mexicans, but he s e t asid e — with p a tro n iz in g New England fa irn e s s — the evidence he o ffered to r e f u te the notion th a t the conquest was a triumph of good, c i v i l i z e d men over bad, barbarous savages: He has o fte n le n t a too w illin g e a r to tr a d i ti o n s and re p o rts which would s t a r t l e the more s k e p tic a l c r itic is m of the p resen t tim e. Yet th e re Is an appearance of good f a i t h and s im p lic ity In h is w ritin g s , which may convince the re a d e r, th a t , when he e r r s , I t Is from no worse cause than n a tio n a l p a r t i a l i t y . And surely such p a r t i a l i t y Is excusable In the descendant of a proud lin e , shorn of I ts an c ie n t splendors, which I t was soothing to h is own fe e lin g s to rev iv e again, — though with something more than t h e i r le g itim a te l u s t r e , — on the canvas of h is to r y , (p. 1 1 6) Wallace quotes P re sc o tt In the In tro d u ctio n to The P a ir God, p o l i t e l y , but only to s t r e s s the v irtu e s of th a t "noble Tezcucan . . . of g re a t learning" In c o n tra s t to the "wily" and d is s o lu te members of the Spanish c o u rt, who used h is w ritin g s to amuse t h e m s e l v e s . H e leaves l i t t l e doubt about h is own fe e lin g fo r I x t l l l x o c h l t l and the work he Is so fre e ly " t r a n s la ti n g ." Nor does Wallace leave any doubt about h is fe e lin g s fo r the conquered. The t i t l e page Is adorned with a q u o tatio n from D rap er's h is to ry : 53 Prom Mexico . . . a c i v i l i z a t i o n th a t might have In s tru c te d Europe was crushed o u t. . . . I t has been her [S pain's! e v il d e stin y to ru in two c i v i l i z a t i o n s ’, O rie n ta l and O ccidental, and to be ru in ed thereby h e r s e lf . . . . In America she destroyed races more c i v i l i z e d than h e r s e l f . i | While he gives C o rtls c r e d it f o r d arin g and courage, the "hero * 1 of the conquest Is portrayed e s s e n t i a l l y as an a v a ric io u s , cunning, and b r u ta l man, who Indulges In speeches lik e : "The heathen Is an anim al." (p. 5^9) In sharp c o n tra s t Is h is p o r t r a i t of Cuauhtemoc — 't z l n Ouatama — the l a s t and most g lo rio u s of the "heathen" emperors, Mexico’s s t i l l beloved ''Fallen E agle." The F a ir God d ea ls not only with b a t t l e s , customs, and a t t i t u d e s of the Mexican In d ian s; I t Is profoundly concerned — as the t i t l e In d ica te s — with t h e i r c e n tr a l myth: the sto ry of Q u e tz alco atl, the god-klng embodying the concept of d eath , r e s u r r e c tio n , and n a tio n a l redemp tio n . Both as god and as h i s t o r i c a l personage (a te n th century k in g ), "The Plumed Serpent" Is c re d ite d with having brought c i v i l i z a t i o n and the a r t s to Mexico. Led in to tem ptation by Jealous gods, Q u etzalco atl lay with h is s i s t e r while drunk on pulque. To atone fo r h is s in , he l e f t the kingdom v o lu n ta r ily . Two endings to the myth widely p r e v a il. In one, he s e t o ff from the co ast on a | r a f t made of snakes. In the o th e r, he flung him self upon 54 a fu n e ra l pyre from which hla h e a rt rose to heaven, where I t was transform ed Into the p lan et Venus. ! According to Aztec b e l i e f , Q u etzalco atl was to r e tu r n ; Dram "the land of su n rise" and lead h is people again to g re a tn e ss In the very year In which Cortes disembarked on the shore a t Veracruz. Not the l e a s t reason f o r the S p an iard 's v ic to ry was the b e l i e f of the Aztecs — f o r a tim e, a t le a s t — th a t Q u etzalco atl had retu rn ed and th a t the long period of u n c e rta in ty and fe a r had ended. C ortes, h im self, re p o rted th a t a f t e r he had taken Mocte- zuma a p ris o n e r in the p alace, the emperor had to ld him with a "happy" face: And we have always known th a t those from whom they descended must come to ru le th i s land and ourselves as I t s v a s s a ls . And according to the place you say you come from, from whence the sun r i s e s , and the things you say of th is g re a t lord or king th a t sent you h ere, we b eliev e and hold him v e rily to be our tru e lo rd . . . . And th e re fo re be you c e r ta in th a t we s h a ll obey you and hold you lord In p lace of t h i s g re a t lord you speak of and In whom th e re Is no f a u lt or d e c e it whatever. . . , 27 The Irony of th is view of the g re a t achievement of European h is to ry was not l o s t on many ob servers. By d e p ic tin g i t fo r a wide audience, Wallace did f o r Mexico what R ider Haggard had done f o r A frica with King Solomon's M ines.2® They opened up unknown t e r r i t o r i e s as a source of c r e a tiv e In s p ira tio n fo r w r ite r s , c a ll i n g a tte n tio n to n a tiv e c i v i l i z a t i o n s and reminding V icto rian audiences th a t people In an " I n t u i t i v e ” s t a t e possessed "some s e c re t which the r a t i o n a l white man had lost."® 9 I t Is th a t q u a lity th a t d is tin g u is h e s W allace's book, the fe e lin g expressed In the p ro p h e t’s lament f o r the coming of the white "god” and h is w a rrio rs: Woe is T e n o c h tltla n : This Is the l a s t day of her p e rfe c t g lo ry . . . . Woe Is T en o ch tltlan i S ittin g In the lak e, she shines lu s tro u s ly as a s t a r ; and though In a v alley of gardens, she Is lik e a g re a t tr e e shadowing In a d e s e r t. But the rava- ger comes, and the tr e e s h a ll be f e ll e d , and the s t a r go out d a rk lin g fo re v e r. The f i r e s s h a ll fad e, the bones of the dead kings be s c a t te re d , a l t a r s and gods overthrown, and every temple le v e lle d with the s t r e e t s . Woe Is T e n o c h tltla n : Ended, — ended fo re v er Is the march of A zatlan, the m ighty:30 As the d e s ire to re c a p tu re th a t "se cret" grew, a n th ro p o lo g is ts , a rc h a e o lo g is ts , and h is to r ia n s stepped up t h e i r re se a rc h . D iffe re n t types of tr a v e le r s began to explore A frica and L atin America, which had been almost e x c lu siv e ly the province of fo rtu n e h u n te rs. F ic tio n r e f le c te d the change. Pre-Civ 11 War novels and sh o rt s t o r i e s about Mexico were l i t t l e d i f f e r e n t In a t t i t u d e , themes, and c h a r a c te r i z a tio n s from the c h ro n ic le s and memoirs. For one th in g , few w rite r s of f i c t i o n had been th e re . That was tru e of Timothy F l i n t , who wrote F rancis B errlan : or the Mexican P a tr io t (1826), considered the f i r s t American novel with a Mexican background. The Congregational m in is te r gained h is knowledge of Mexico from the n a r ra tiv e of James Ohio P a t t le , which he e d ite d . The Kentucky mountain man's a t t i t u d e toward the Mexicans, as has been noted, was sca rcely a p p r e c i a ti v e .31 The Image of the Mexican as "greaser" was p e rp etu ated , C ecil Robinson emphasizes, In the Dime Novels Issued by Beadle and Adams In the 1860s and 1870s . W ritten by or with the help of e x -m lllta ry men lik e "Buffalo B ill" Cody, C aptain "Bruin" Adams, Captain Jack Crawford ("th e poet s c o u t" ), and J. B. "Texas Jack" Omodhundroo, they appealed to r a c i a l and n a t i o n a l i s ti c p re ju d ic e s and were co n stru c te d to show how "Saxon I n t e l lig e n c e , s tre n g th , and p u rity of motive triumph over the g u ile and treach ery of the degenerate 'yellow b e l l y . ' 1 1 (pp. 25*26) In the s p i r i t of romance, Mexican women - - b e a u tifu l ae fio rlta s, almost In v ariab ly — were exempted from the r e s t of the ra c e : "Their proper place was beside the blond and noble g ia n ts from the north who . . . rescued them from the connlvlngs of d e c e i tf u l, cowardly, and dowry-seeking Mexican s u i t o r s . " (p. 26) Some w rite r s did make an e f f o r t to suggest the r i c h ness of Mexican c u ltu re and the complexity of the Mexloan c h a ra c te r and respo nses. Some w rite r s appealed to a 57 romantic yearning f o r a p rim itiv e golden age among those who were beginning to sicken over the m a te r ia l 1s t Ic, vulgar e x h ib itio n of the American Way of Life th a t reached a climax In the "Qllded Age," B ret H arte, a l e r t to popu l a r demand, Ignored the p o s s i b i l i t i e s of the a c tu a l and c re a te d a fa n ta sy of "a golden world under the Spanish and Mexican governors" In h is works. Rich m a te ria l was a v a ila b le to him during h is C a lifo rn ia experience from 1854 to 1871, when the Mexican "past" was s t i l l a p a rt of the p re se n t. However, as Stanley Williams has pointed ou t, Harte had l i t t l e concern fo r "Inner m e a n i n g s . "32 Consequently, the paradoxes, the e s s e n t i a l s are m issing from h is s t o r i e s about the c o n f l i c t of c u ltu r e s . The same kind of p a s to ra l idyl was p ro je c te d by Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona, which achieved enormous p o p u la rity a f t e r i t s p u b lic a tio n In 1884. But th a t book was more than a n o s ta lg ic evocation of "the days of the dons." Helen Hunt Jackson, a New Englander who was a clo se frie n d of Emily Dickinson, had made the p lig h t of the C a lifo rn ia In d ian s, who were c u lt u r a l ly Mexicans, a cause. Ramona is a lso a vigorous denunciation of the p ra c tic e s of "M anifest D estiny A m erica"^ — an Impassioned appeal fo r J u s tic e f o r the Indians being driven o ff t h e i r land by e x p lo itiv e American ranchers with th e consent of t h e i r government. At the tu rn of the century , more serio u s w rIte rs who were out fo r bigger game than "good guys" and "bad guys" began to w rite about Mexico and "Mexican" C a lifo rn ia and the Southwest In a d if f e r e n t way — conceiving I t as a b attleground fo r the stru g g le between man and machine-man. Uiere was no going back to a pre-machine golden age. P resley , the hero of Prank N o rr is 's The Octopus had acknowledged th a t "the s o u lle s s Force" symbolized by the t r a i n had triumphed over the medieval m achineless days of romance when he l e f t the l i t t l e community of Spanlsh- Amerleans: "I was b om too la t e f o r th a t . . . and fo r many o th e r t h i n g s . " ^ But I t might be p o ssib le to re c a p tu re a " r e lig io u s sense" by exposing o n eself to violence as a means of In sp irin g t e r r o r and awe, to dark n ess, to d ea th , Stephen Crane had explored the p o s s i b i l i t i e s of v io len ce. His tr a v e ls In Mexico during 1891 had produced a memorable sh o rt s to ry , a drama of the absurd In which th re e North Americans and th re e Mexicans move toward each o th er "in a s t r a i g h t lin e of c o l l i s i o n . "35 i t Is a sto ry of sheer t e r r o r , the evocation of an atmosphere of Immi nent and se n se le ss violence a t a midnight moment In the 59 Mexican c a p i t a l . The drunken stumble of one of the companions of the New York Kid and the In s ta n t demand by one of the Mexicans f o r an apology suddenly made "the un real r e a l" — "There was going to be a screaming murder." (p. 210) The Kid met the challenge; h is gun "arose lik e a f e a t h e r ." Suddenly, the t e s t was over; the Mexicans backed down. "Nothing had happened." (p. 212) But In the in te r v a l, he had been i n i t i a t e d . Other p re - World War I w r ite r s had been a t t r a c te d by the p o s s i b i l i t i e s of v io le n c e , includ ing Ambrose B ierce. What h is dark and iro n ic gaze had seen th e re was never known; fo r B ierce, who had en tered Mexico In 1913 to serve on the s t a f f of Pancho V illa simply v a n ish e d .36 The darkness had a ls o been explored in Latin America, and by ex ten sio n Mexico, by Herman M elville In Benito Cereno - - the stra n g e ly ambivalent sh o rt novel in which both the Spaniard and the A frican a n ti-h e ro e s are d es troyed In the s tru g g le fo r supremacy. A more s i g n if ic a n t and ex ten siv e voyage was made in 1904 In Joseph Conrad's Nostromo, one of h is g r e a te s t novels. Although the m ythical Republic of Costaguana Is Paraguay, the sto ry Is based on an anecdote he had heard In 1875 or 1876 when he was on the Gulf of Mexico. And Costaguana could w ell be Mexloo — peopled as i t Is with the very types who helped to shape Mexloo during the n in eteen th and tw en tieth c e n tu r ie s : European e x p lo ite r s Id e a liz in g t h e i r m a te ri a l i s t i c g o als, co rru p t n a tiv e p o l i t i c i a n s waging re v o lu tio n and c o u n te r-re v o lu tio n , c h a rla ta n s and adventurers — a l l using the "simple souls" as Instrum ents of t h e i r own d e s t r u c t i o n ,37 Dominated by the mad dream of Holroyd, the American f in a n c ie r who r a ti o n a l i z e s h is power and money goals by I n s is tin g th a t I t Is only to bring " J u s tic e , In d u stry , peace, to the benighted co n tin en ts" as w ell as "a purer form of C h r i s t ia n it y ," (p. 217) Everyone Involved In r e a l i z i n g the dream Is corrupted or destroyed by I t , made victim o r v lc tlm lz e r — except the man who had dreamed I t . Removed from humanity, Holroyd had no concern about Immediate r e s u l t s or s p e c ific In d iv id u a ls, H istory was on h is s id e . And Time. "We s h a ll be giving the word fo r ev ery th in g — In d u stry , tra d e , law, journalism , p o l i t i c s , and r e l i g i o n ." (p. 8 9 ) Breaking through h is to ry and time — learn in g the ways of doing th a t from the Indians who seemed Impervious to both - - became a kind of obsession with many w r ite r s . They were a t t r a c t e d to Mexico because th ere the f a i l u r e s of modem h is to ry and I t s p o l i t i c a l , s o c ia l, r e lig io u s , and economic i n s t i t u t i o n s appeared most b la ta n t. There, too, th e Indians conveyed the Impression of having endured 61 ( lik e F a u lk n e r's D llsey) — of having m aintained I n te g r ity and beauty amid the chaos around them. Chaos was p re c is e ly the co n d itio n of Mexico In the / | y ears Immediately before and during World War I and the j two decades th a t follow ed. The overthrow of the regime of P o rflrlo D{az In 1911# a f t e r almost fo rty years of b ru ta l oppression and e x p lo ita tio n of the Indians and th e s u rre n d er of the n a t i o n 's ric h e s to fo re ig n e n tre p re n e u rs, l e f t Mexico groping fo r v ia b le p o l i t i c a l modes. His su ccesso r, F rancisco Madero, was a s s a s s in a te d In 1912 with the com plicity of the American Ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson. V lctorlano H uerta, a "murderous drunk" was I n s ta lle d as c h ie f ex e c u tiv e , launching "an unbroken orgy of drunken n ess, robbery, and m urder."3® Revolt and c o u n te r-re v o lt became the con tinuing way of p o l i t i c a l l i f e . Huerta was d riv en from the country In 1914 by a r e b e l c o a litio n led by Emllfano Zapata In the south and by Pancho V illa , Alvaro Obregon, and Venustlano Carranza In the n o rth . The l a t t e r took c o n tro l, but peace under h is ru le was an uneasy one — th reaten ed by f a c tio n s w ith in and by th r e a t of U. S. In te rv e n tio n from w ith o u t. R evolutionary fe rv o r had found concrete expressio n In the C o n s titu tio n of 1917. I t a u th o rise d profound changes ‘ In the n a tio n a l l i f e . A rtic le 3 d eclared the s e p a ra tio n of church and s t a t e and the s e c u la riz a tio n of education; A rtic le 27 provided f o r land to be re s to re d to the peas* ants and c a lle d fo r a h a lt of the fo re ig n e x p lo ita tio n of s u b so il re so u rc e s; A rtic le 123 guaranteed workers the ! r i g h t to bargain c o lle c tiv e ly and to s t r i k e . But govern* ments of the Left between 1920 and 193^ did l i t t l e more than governments of the Right had done e a r l i e r to bring about a ru le of Ju st law and to Improve the l o t of the oppressed. During the regimes of Obregon and h is su cces so r, power passed from m ilita ry to labor o au d lllo a and p o l i t i c a l o ro n les. The labor lead e rs were no le s s a r r o gant and rapacious than the m i l i t a r i s t s had been; p o l i t i c a l f a v o r ite s were of greed so n otorio us and a c tio n s so r u th le s s th a t the country house of P residen t C alles was said to be lo cated on "The S tre e t of the Forty Thieves." (p. 282) The ‘underdogs' who rose to power d iffe re d from the old 'to p dogs' only In outward show. A memorable p o r t r a i t of the new -style p o l i t i c i a n was p ain ted by William S p ra tlln g , one of the Americans who crossed the border a f t e r World War I a t t r a c t e d by Indian a r t and c u ltu r e . Jestis Llorado Is rep resen ted as "a general w ithout ever having fought b a t t l e s , a llcen clad o w ithout ever having stu d ied law . . . a congressman w ithout ever having been voted f o r . "39 He la a b u lly , th re a te n in g the 63 poor In the Memories of the Future c a n tin a ; and as an 'I n c o r r u p tib le r e v o l u t l o n a r l o ,' he Is a man of w ealth, : liv in g In a c o lo n ia l palace. ! I The paradox of p o l i t i c a l I n s t i t u t i o n s was p a r a lle le d ! i ! ; by the paradox of the church. During the c o lo n ia l period ' I t had amassed enormous ric h e s and power. I t was e s t l - , mated to have owned o n e -th ird of the country a t the time J u /re z and the l i b e r a l s came Into power In 1 8 5 5. The s e c u la r iz a tio n program he I n s t i t u te d was of l i t t l e help to the depriv ed: the law a g a in s t c o rp o ra tio n s ' owning land s trip p e d the church of p ro p e rty . But th a t was turned over to " Irre sp o n s ib le hacendados and p riv a te s p e c u la to rs ." ^ 0 More d is a s tr o u s ly , the same law was used by the same people to c o n fis c a te Indian lands owned commonly since t h e i r comunldades were held to be co rp o ratio n s w ithin the d e f in it i o n of the law. The C atholic Church regained much of the l o s t land and wealth during the D^az regime; and the re v o lu tio n a ry lead e rs In the tw entieth century promised th a t t h i s time se iz u re would b e n e fit the p easan ts. But the peones who followed Zapata and o th er lead ers Into b a t t l e under the banner of the "dark V i r g i n ," Our Lady of Guadalupe, had am bivalent a t t i t u d e s toward the i church. They acknowledged I t s e x p lo ita tio n and hoped fo r i | a r e d i s t r i b u t i o n of church land; however, few would t o l e r a t e the a b o litio n of the only Imported I n e tl t u t lo n to which they had been able to make any meaningful r e l a tio n s h ip . C atholicism In Mexico, I t should be noted, Is u nlike C atholicism In Europe and the United S ta te s - - a cu rio us amalgam of C h ris tia n and, m ostly, p re -C h ris tia n r i t u a l s and b e l i e f s . The m issio n a ries Imposed a veneer of r e lig io u s myth and dogma on the n a tiv e r e li g i o n , and In Indian t e r r i t o r y th a t veneer Is very th in , Indeed. Ancient gods are worshipped; an c ie n t r i t e s c e le b ra te d . The church In San Juan Chamula In southern Mexico Is an example; th e re , the c i r c u i t r id in g p r i e s t conducts a C atholic se rv ic e on one Friday In each month. On Sundays and f e a s t days, v illa g e e ld e rs and 'p r i e s t s ' conduct r i t u a l s d a tin g back f a r beyond the co nqu est . 1 *1 R eligious passions compounded p o l i t i c a l chaos In 1926 when C a lle s , answering an a tta c k by some clergymen, closed a l l church sch o o ls, deported more than two hundred p r i e s t s and nuns as "undesirable a l i e n s ," and ordered a l l remain ing p r i e s t s to r e g i s t e r with c i v i l a u t h o r i t i e s . The clergy went on s t r i k e , and the middle ground became a no-man's land In the stru g g le between church and s t a t e m ilita n ts . The C r l s t e r o s , a group of r e lig io u s R ig h tis ts ,, r e t a l i a t e d — burning government schools, murdering te a c h e rs , blowing up t r a i n s . ^ C a lle s ' men s tru c k back; they rounded up "many thousands of Indians . . . herding them in to co n c en tratio n camps, while s o ld ie rs burned the v illa g e s and s to le ev ery th in g In s i g h t ." (p. 2 7 8 ) Mean w hile, another fa c tio n emerged, fro n te d by gangs of toughs who c a lle d themselves "Gold S h irts " and who expended t h e i r fury on "Communists" ( l . e . opponents of C a lle s) and Jews, (p. 283) In a d d itio n to the r e lig io u s and p o l i t i c a l wars, o th er apocalyptic fo rc e s were lo o se. Mexico had s u r rendered I t s wealth to a few fo re ig n and n ativ e e n t r e preneurs a t a t e r r i b l e co st to I t s own people. The progress and p ro sp e rity P resco tt had spoken of In h is s a lu te to the conquerors were meaningless terms to most of the people of Mexico, with about n inety per cent liv in g ; on a s ta r v a tio n d ie t and with th re e of every fo u r c h ild re n In some places dying before they reached the age of f iv e . Death — by v io len ce, d is e a s e , or famine — has always been a g re a t f a c t of Mexico. And the Mexicans' r e la tio n s h ip to death has been a continuin g source of fa s c in a tio n f o r Europeans and Americans, who have gone to enormous lengths to deny I t . Octavio Paz, the Mexican p o et, n o v e lis t, and ph ilosoph er, has pointed out the d if f e r i n g a t t i t u d e s In The Labyrinth of S o litu d e : 66 The word death la not pronounced In New York, In Par la , in London, because I t bum s the l lp a . The Mexican, In c o n tr a s t, la fa m ilia r with death, Jokes about I t , c a re sse s i t , sleep s with I t , c e le b ra te s I t ; i t Is one of h is f a v o r ite toys and h is most s te a d f a s t l o v e . ^3 In h is b r i l l i a n t a n a ly s is of l i f e and thought In Mexico, i Paz s t r e s s e s the importance of th a t a t t i t u d e : "A c i v i l i z a tio n th a t denies death ends by denying l i f e . " (p. 6 0 ) There can be no personal engagement in such a dead c i v i l i z a tio n — not a r t , nor love, nor even murder: "Modern c rim in a ls and statesm en do not k i l l : they a b o lis h ." (p. 6 0 ) S im ila rly , F. S. C. Northrup s a id . In d isc u ssin g the works of J o s / Clemente Orozco: At no p o in t do the values of the Indian and the Spanish s p i r i t stand In g re a te r c o n tra s t to those of the Anglo-American people to t h e i r north than In these fre sc o s of Orozco: Spanish America with I t s co n v ictio n th a t traged y, b r u t a l i t y , chaos, f a i l u r e , and d eath , as w ell as triumph and compassion, aim a t o rd e r, and e a rth ly l i f e are an e s s e n t i a l p a rt of the glory of man; Anglo- Amerlca with I t s pollyannlc tendency, I t s C h ris tia n S cience, I t s l i f e under the elms as I f th ere were no d e s ire th e re a ls o , I t s worship of the su c c e ssfu l businessman, I t s formal Kantian Id e a l ism empty of em p irical c o n te n t, and I t s pragma tism making even tr u th I t s e l f dependent upon a su c c e ssfu l reward a t the end . 44 The Mexican - - born of mixed parentage — is the c h ild of d e a th .**5 i t is the h e rita g e receiv ed from the Spanish f a th e r ; f o r d eath , as Wyndham Lewis has noted. Is "the patron s a i n t of SpaIn . ”^6 a ls o the legacy of the Indian mother alnce death formed the whole pantheon of the an c ie n t Mexican r e li g i o n . In the scu lp tu red ru in s of the Mayan c i t i e s , Aldous Huxley re p o rte d th a t he found only s k u lls , bones, and emblems of death; even d ates were " v a ria tio n s on the theme of d e a th 's h e a d ."^7 And the Mayan s c u lp to rs , he s a id , c o n tra s tin g t h e i r work with those of o th er c i v i l i z a t i o n s , "expressed the Idea o f death with a p e n e tra tiv e force only surpassed, In a l l the h i s tory of a r t , by the A ztecs." (p. 43) Even the music of Mexico Is d eath . William Carlos Williams expressed th a t Idea In a poem c a lle d "The D esert Music," w ritte n a f t e r a d a y 's shopping In Ciudad Juarez. C rossing the bridge from El Paso, he saw — t o t a l l y Ignored by the passersby — the head less body of a man wedged Into the s tr u c tu r e of the b rid g e. On h is re tu r n , he saw the corpse s t i l l th ere — "packed lik e the p i t of a f r u i t Into th a t obscure corner": The music guards I t , a mucus, a film surrounds I t , a benumbing Ink th a t s ta in s the sea of our minds — to hold us o ff — shed of a shape clo se as I t can get to no shape, a music: a p ro te c tin g m usic.48 The a t t r a c t i o n of death fo r the w rite r s was not a morbid one e s s e n t i a l l y ; r a th e r , as Anita Brenner has 68 suggested, "an a r t i s t ' s mood" - - a concern with death "because of the passion f o r l l f e . " ^ The concern with ! death was a ls o , they f e l t , a t the h e a rt of the In d ian s' j [ r e lig io u s sense — a sense th a t could be captured by s e c u la r men only I f they were w illin g to come to terms with d u a lity and d eath. In With the Ears of S tra n g e rs , C ecil Robinson says th a t: "Nowhere has the c o n tra s t between the treatm ent of Mexican c u ltu re by e a rly American w rite r s and those of modern times been g r e a te r than In the area of r e l i g i o n . "5° The t r a d i t i o n a l P ro te s ta n t d i s t a s t e fo r C atholicism , with I t s pageantry, sensuous and m ystical and ornate a s p e c ts , ^ was enhanced In Anglo observers o f Mexico and the South west by c l e r i c a l c o rru p tio n . During the la te n in eteen th cen tu ry , th a t a t t i t u d e was modified by the romantic deplotIon of the padres as prominent persons In the "Golden Days" romances. A fter the tu rn of the cen tu ry , I t was stepped up by more so p h is tic a te d accounts, lik e W llla C a th e r's Death Comes fo r the Archbishop and by the vigorous p r o te s ts of w rite r s lik e Mary A ustin. She accused the P ro te s ta n t m issio n a ries and the Indian Bureau In New Mexico of try in g to k i l l the a e s th e tic asp e cts of the l i f e of American Indians and the Mexicans. D eploring . the lack of s ig n if ic a n t r i t u a l In the United S ta te s , she 69 s a id th a t "the key to much of our E nglish-speaking l i f e th a t is m o rtify in g and confusing" is provided by r i t e s ; lik e the r e lig io u s processions In Santa Pe: i For what do our Klwanls and Ku-Kluxers seek, with t h e i r made-up school-boy t i t l e s and t h e i r p illo w c a ses, but to re c a p tu re the l o s t a r t of exp ressin g d ra m a tic a lly the fundamental l i f e r e la ti o n s which, here In our Southwest, flow n a tu ra lly Into forms born of the g re a t age of Dante and Lope de V e g a ? 5 2 C atholicism was not a l l - - or even very much — of Mexican r e li g io n . The stran g e gods and e x o tic r i t u a l s of the an c ie n t In d ian s, so Interm ingled with C atholicism , made an even stro n g e r appeal to w r ite r s . Even more d ra m a tic a lly the Indian r e lig i o n p o rtra y s the d u a l l s t l c s tru g g le of good and e v i l , with man p re c a rio u sly caught between them. The whole of Aztec r e lig io u s l i f e , as Burland emphasizes In The Qods of Mexico, Is preoccupied w ith the balancing of opposite powers: l i g h t and dark, male and fem ale, b i r t h and d eath . I t Involves not only time and the m a te ria l world, but "an aspect of the human psyche which sometimes appears as a t e r r i f y i n g c o n tra s t w ith in the In d ividu al" and which "ev en tu ally must be faced and co n q u ered . " 5 3 The Aztec r e li g i o n , I a u r e tte s 6 journ 6 says In her study of an cien t Mexican thought and r e li g i o n , b e a u tif u lly conceived of man's stru g g le as a "flow ering i . ■ w a r . " ^ 1* The war, which Is renewed In every conscious I 70 c r e a t u r e , la symbolized by two c u rre n ts - - f i r e and w ater — which may f i n a l l y be u n ite d . Each man Is then a " b a ttle ground," In which two enemies confront each o th e r p i t i l e s s l y . I f m atter conquers, h is s p i r i t is "a n n ih i la te d " ; but I f s p i r i t wins, "the body 'flo w e rs ' and a new l i g h t goes to give power to the sun." (p. 7 2 ) Burland t e l l s how Aztec r e li g i o n showed the way to v ic to ry : There is a passage In Codex Laud which t e l l s how the good p r i e s t , having faced a l l tem ptations and decided to put the world behind him, must then proceed to u t t e r l y d estro y h is own w ill ; as the p ic tu re s put I t , the f le s h , the bones, and the breath must be t o m a p a r t. He must be as one who has, In e f f e c t , d ie d . The reward of t h i s abne g atio n of s e l f was th a t the p r i e s t wore the breath of l i f e , the wind mask of Q u etzalco atl upon h is c h e s t, and could approach the w aters of death w ithout f e a r . I t appears th a t he was able to r e j e c t or accept death Ju st as he wished. Such an acceptance of death not as an enemy but as something which one recognized In frie n d s h ip was Indeed a worthwhile r e s u l t of f u l l In te g ra tio n . (p. 1 3 0) Achieving th a t ' f u l l In te g r a tio n ' was an e x c itin g p o s s i b i l i t y to many In h a b ita n ts of "the waste lan d ," who saw no flow ering s p i r i t s In t h e i r own c u ltu r e . They were f u r t h e r stim u lated by a s e r i e s of books on Mexican and Peruvian mythology by the S c o ttis h sc h o la r, Lewis S p e n c e . 55 His version of the conquest was q u ite d if f e r e n t from those of n in eteen th century h i s t o r i a n s : . . . the f r i g h t f u l s to ry of the path to fo rtune of re d -h eeled P lxarro and cru e l C ortes, of the h o rrib le c r u e l t i e s committed upon the red man, whose co lour was " th a t of the d e v il," of the awful pageant of g o ld -sated p ir a te s laden with the tre a s u re s of p a la c e s, of the s trip p in g of the temples whose very b ric k s were of gold . . . of rap in e and the s a c rile g e of high places . . ,5o Moreover, he s a id , the h is to ry and " s e m l-h ls to rlc a l" mythology of C en tral America were "second to none In ric h n e ss and In ten t" (p. v l l ) ; and h is books proved I t , To be su re , some of the gods In the pantheon des c rib e d by Spence were hideous and b lo o d th ir s ty , demanding v ictim s by the thousand to s u s ta in them. But even they seemed le s s re p u ls iv e than the machine god to whom so many had been s a c r if ic e d during World War I . According to the myths, the s a c r if ic e d were adm itted to the heaven of the sun r a th e r than the underworld realm of M lctlan. But the victim s of the machine? D. H. Lawrence had w ritte n of t h a t : Death Is g lo rio u s . But to be blown to b i t s by a machine Is mere h o rro r. Death, I f I t be v io le n t death, should come as a grand p assio n al climax and consummation, and then a l l Is w ell with the soul of the d e a d .57 By experiencing death sym bolically, by o ffe rin g themselves up as s a c r i f i c i a l v ic tim s, the s p i r i t u a l r e b ir th would fin d man whole and liv in g . That fe e lin g has been t r a n s la te d Into many works of f i c t i o n , perhaps none more e x p l i c i t than Conrad A iken's A Heart f o r the Pods of Mexico In which Nonl, the h ero in e, s e ts o ff "on the g re a t c i r c l e to Mexico, tak in g h er h e a rt as an o ffe rin g to the blo o d stain ed a l t a r of the plumed s e r p e n t , "58 h o w not? the i i hero of the novel muses. In the United S ta te s , 'home* fo r i ; Nonl, th ere was a " s p i r i t u a l drought only, an unconquered i ! and savage land, a bloodsucking land, which had slowly but su rely taken the souls of the people who liv ed upon : I t . " (p. 437) Other asp e cts of Mexico In trig u ed — d e s p ite , or perhaps because of the dangers. Mexico l£ dangerous, and during the y ears between the two world wars buying a t i c k e t to Mexico was a f a i r l y ris k y b u s in e s s .59 Great beauty Is th e re . The death-haunted landscape o ffe rs a l l i | e a rth ly fe a tu re s In an extravagant way: vast s tre tc h e s of d e s e rt In the n o rth , with towering pink and purple moun- ; ta in s ; the flow ering p la te a u s of the c e n tr a l highlands th a t funnel down to Jungles and r a in f o r e s ts In the south — of a green so Intense they seem an underwater u n iv erse. D aylight Is b r ig h te r south of the Tropic of Cancer: the sun blazes In a b lu e r sky; the clouds — w hite, s i l v e r , black — are more s u b s t a n t i a l . B irds and flow ers flame; fo lia g e f u l f i l l s the range of green from p a le s t gold to i d a rk e st b lu e-b lac k . Nights are deeper In Mexico, s t a r s more darkly b r i l l i a n t . Concepts of space and time change. 73 Now la made up of the yesterd ay s of two thousand y e a rs . The psychic quest of Lawrence, Katherine Anne P o rte r, ■ Graham Greene, and Malcolm Lowry — the h e ir s of Conrad I ! w ith whom t h i s paper Is concerned — had a profound Influence on modern l i t e r a t u r e . And on modern c u ltu re . The 'n ig h t Journey' pioneered by Lawrence has been repeated by n o v e lis ts as d iv erse as John S teinbeck, Saul Bellow, Jack Kerouac, Wright M orris, Anals Nln, Tom Lea; p o ets, Hart Crane, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos W illiam s, W itter Bynner, Robinson J e f f e r s ; p layw rights, Maxwell Anderson, Tennessee W illiams; and a whole range of n o n -fic tio n w rite r s Including Oscar Lewis, whose Five j F a m ilie s, The C hildren of Sanchez, and Pedro Martinez c o n s titu te a new a r t form. The Impact on c u ltu re has been no le s s profound; I t helped to c r e a te the "apocalyptic generation" f o r b e t t e r and f o r worse: the In sp ire d young people working f o r Cesar Chavez; the depraved members of the Manson "fam ily." I t can be sa id of the w ritin g s of the psychic search ers what William York T in d all said of Lawrence's w ritin g s In p a r ti c u l a r : through them, re ad ers and h i s t o r ia n s "may tra c e . . . the p a tte rn followed by the contemporary and h is s o u l . "6° ! i 74 NOTES CHAPTER II 1. W ill Durant, The Reformation (New York: Simon & S c h u ste r, 1957)* p. 270. i)urant s e ts the discovery as the beginning of modern h is to r y . 2. The Conquest o f Mexico, ed. Genaro O arcla, tra n s . A. P. Maudslay (Mexico C ity : The Mexico P re s s , 1928), p. 41. 3. The I n te r e s t in the M exlcan-Indlans and th e ir past began to grow In the l a s t q u a rte r o f the n in eteen th centu ry. Only In the l a s t decade o r so, however, have accounts o f the conquest from the n ativ e view point become req u ired reading in co lleg es and u n i v e r s i t i e s . One o f the best te x ts la Vision de los V encldos. ed. Miguel L e o n -P o rtllla and Angel Marla Gerlbay K. (Mexico: Edlclones de la U nlversldad Nacional Autonoma, 1959)* That has re c e n tly been tra n s la te d In to E n g lish , The Broken S p ears. 4. S ta n le y W illia m s , The S p an ish Backgrounds o f American L i t e r a t u r e (Hamden, Conn: Archon Books, 1908) , I , p . feb. 5 . H i s t o r y o f t h e C o n q u e s t o f M e x i c o a n d H i s t o r y o f t h e t f o n q u e s t o f P e r u ( N e w Y o r k : T h e M o d e r n L i b r a r y a R a n d o m H o u s e , i n c . , n . d . ) , p . 6 1 5 . 6. Henry Bamford Parkes, A H isto ry o f Mexico (Boston: Houghton M ifflin Company, 193*0* P* 179* 7. C arl Sandburg, Abraham L in co ln . The F r a l r l e Years and the War Years (Hew York: H arcourt, Brace & World, I n c . , 19bb), p. 9 6 . The popular a t t i tu d e In the country was expressed by Stephen A. Douglas, who quoted F rederick the G re a t's slogan In speaking about the in v asion: "Take possession f i r s t and n e g o tia te a fte rw a rd ." (p. 9 5 ) 75 8 . " C i v i l D is o b e d ie n c e ," The American T r a d i t i o n In L i t e r a t u r e . e d . S c u lle y ^Bradley, kicW ard Croom B e a t t y and E. riudson Long (New York: W. W. N orton & Company, I n c . , 1 9 6 7 ), I j P. 1U62. 9* (T ucson, A riz o n a : The U n i v e r s i t y o f A rizo n a P r e s s , 1 9 6 9 ), P. 31. 10. The P ersonal N a rra tiv e o f James 0. Pat t i e o f Kentucky, ed. Timothy F lin t (Chicago: The Lakeside P re s s , 1 9 3 0). Robinson Bays o f th a t book, which was o f co n sid erab le importance In shaping a t t i t u d e s toward Mexico and the Mexicans th a t: " p a ttie devotes a good deal o f space to accounts o f Mexican l i f e , but d e sp ite i t s fa sc in a tio n s fo r him, he can find l i t t l e to admire in Mexico except I t s s k i l l In horsemanship and the beauty o f I t s women." (p. 21) 11. (C h icag o : L ak e sid e P r e s s , 1929)• K e n d a ll d i f f e r e d from o t h e r e a r l y c h r o n i c l e r s In one r e s p e c t - - h l B a d m ira tio n f o r the Mexican p o o r. In t h a t a t t i t u d e , he was d i s t i n c t l y modern, as R obinson has p o in te d o u t . (p . 63) 12. Audubon quoted, Robinson, p. 5^* 13. W illia m s , V ol. 1, p. 90* 14. L if e In Mexico D u rin g a R e sid e n ce o f Two Y ears in T hat C o u n try . (New York: E. P. D u tto n and Company, I n c . , , p. 357. Madame C a ld e r 6n fs view and P r e s c o t t 's were so s i m i l a r th a t t h e i r words a lm o st echo each o t h e r In manv c a s e s . For exam ple, In sp e a k in g o f the A zte cs r e l i g i o u s p r a c t i c e s - - J u s t b e fo re th e a r r i v a l o f the S p a n ia r d s , they were r e p o r t e d to have s a c r i f i c e d 20,000 to 30,000 a y e a r - - she s a y s : "That th e se a c c o u n ts a r e e x a g g e r a te d , even though a b ish o p i s among the n a r r a t o r s , we can s c a r c l y d o u b t: b u t I f the te n th p a r t i s t r u e , l e t the memory o f C o rte s be s a c r e d , who, w ith the c r o s s , sto p p e d the sh e d d in g o f In n o c e n t b lo o d , founded the c a t h e d r a l on th e r u i n s o f the tem ple which had so o f t e n reso u n d ed w ith human g ro a n s , and In the p la c e o f th e s e b lo o d -sm e ared I d o ls e n s h r in e d th e m ild form o f the V i r g i n . " (p . 6l ) 76 15. J o h n L. S t e p h e n s , E s q ., I n c i d e n t s o f T r a v e l I n C e n t r a l A m e r i c a . C h i a p a s , a n d Y u c a t a n ( N e w B r u n s w i c k . N. J . : k utgers U n iv ersity P re s s , 1949)* I* P* 01. Stephens was awed by what he c a lle d — the m ystery, dark Im penetrable m ystery." He s a id o f the ru in s of Copan: Of the moral e f f e c t o f the monuments them s e lv e s , stan d in g as they do in the depths o f a t r o p ic a l f o r e s t , s i l e n t and solemn, stran g e in d esig n , e x c e lle n t in s c u lp tu re , ric h in uses and purposes and whole h is to ry so e n t i r e l y unknown, with h iero g ly p h ics ex p lain in g a l l but being p e r fe c tly u n i n t e l l i g i b l e . Often the im agination was pained gazing a t them. (pp. 123-24) At f i r s t , Catherwood found i t almost im possible to draw the s c u lp tu re s , "the designs so i n t r i c a t e and com plicated, the s u b je c ts so e n t i r e l y new and u n i n t e l l i g i b l e ." (p. 9 2) 16. ( N e w Y o r k : C o v e r P u b l i c a t i o n s , I n c . , 1963)* I* p. 2 6 3 . S t a r t l e d a t one point during a t r ip through a cemetery to see a s k u ll proudly displayed with the name of the liv in g w ritte n on the foreh ead , Stephens spoke with a p r i e s t about i t . The l a t t e r answered th a t i t was the custom to exhume the dead and place them - - p la in ly id e n tif ie d — on d isp lay sin c e : " . . . in the grave they are fo rg o tte n ; but when dug up and placed In s ig h t with la b e ls on them, they remind the liv in g o f th e ir former e x is te n c e , o f th e ir u n c e rta in s t a t e — th a t t h e i r souls may be in purgatory — and appeal to th e ir f r ie n d s , as w ith voices from the grave, to pray fo r them, and have masses said with t h e i r so u ls, (p. 2 6 2) 17. Sylvanus Griswold Morley,, The Ancient Maya (S tan fo rd , C a lif : S tanford U n iv e rsity P re s s , l ^ Y ) , p7 v i i l . 18. W illiam s, I I , p. 122. 19. I b i d . . p. 128. Williams makes the point th a t , u nlik e many, Bryant recognized the s ig n ific a n c e o f the Monroe D octrine o f 1023 and opposed fo rc e fu lly the view c ite d by D aniel Webster and o th ers as "Yankee p r e ju d i c e s ." 77 20. B ry an t's Spanish s tu d ie s seem to have begun In e a rn e s t a f t e r he moved from New England to New York In 1825* during which time he liv e d w ith the S a la z a r fam ily, who probably Introduced him to Jos 6 Marla H eredia, a Cuban poet and r e v o lu tio n is t who was e x ile d f i r s t to Mexico and then to the United S t a t e s . 21. Enrique Anderson Imbert and Eugenio F l o r l t , e d s ., L ite r a tu r e Hlspanoamerlcana (New York: H o lt, R inehart and Winston, I n c . , 1907i » pp. 218-25. Although Bryant is u su ally c r e d ite d w ith having tra n s la te d the poem, there Is In d ic a tio n th a t he was only p a r tly re sp o n sib le in h is having refused to Include I t in h is c o lle c te d poems. 22. " A V is it to Mexico," Prose W ritings of William Cullen B ryant. ed. Parke Godwin (frew York: E. Appleton and Company, 1 8 8 6) , pp. 222-61. 23. Quoted, W illiam s, I , p. 228. 24. A b r i e f p ic tu re o f the tr a ito r o u s prince Is given by P re s c o tt. In d e sc rib in g the S p an iard s' second e n try in to Mexico to f i r e the palaces and destroy ro y al monuments, P re s c o tt says th a t the Aztecs were "exasperated almost to madness" by the sig h t o f th e ir kinsmen and a l l i e s a id in g the enemy. The "vented t h e i r fury In b i t t e r e x e c ra tio n s , e s p e c ia lly on the young prin ce I x t l l l x o c h l t l , who, marching side by sid e w ith C ortSs, took h is f u l l share In the dangers o f the day. The w arrio rs from the housetops poured the most opprobrious e p ith e ts on him, as he passed, denouncing him as a fa ls e -h e a r te d t r a i t o r ; fa ls e to his country and h is blood, — reproaches not a lto g e th e r unmerited as h is kinsman, who ch ro n ic le s the circum stances, can did ly c o n fe ss e s." (p. 5 6 6) 25. (Boston: Houghton, M ifflin and Company, 1 8 8 5) , p. x l . 26. For a good d e ta ile d account o f the Q u etz alco atl myth, see Ire n e N icholson, Mexican and C en tral American Mythology {[London: Paul Hamlyn, 19bb). in t h a t , she says? "The myth o f the plumed serp en t Is d az zlin g In I t s beauty. I t Is the complete f a ir y t a l e . A ll things change p e rp e tu a lly in to something e l s e , everything Is e lu s iv e , In ta n g ib le , yet permanent and tru e . The g re a t b lrd -s p rp e n t, p r i e s t - 78 king Q u e tz a lc o a tl, is the most powerful fig u re in a l l the mythology o f Mexico and C e n tra l America," (p- 78) 2 7 . Quoted, L au rette S ejourne, Burning Water: Thought and R eligion In Ancient Mexico (New York: The Vanguard P re s s , 1950)# p. ^ 3 . 2 8 . I t la i n t e r e s t i n g th a t the two im portant works were so c lo se in time. King Solomon's Mines appeared In 1 8 8 5. The F air Qod had o r i g i n a l l y been published In 1873* but I t was not u n t i l a f t e r the appearance of Ben Hur In i860 th at I t gained p o p u la rity ; th a t was so exten siv e th at by l8o5 the book had gone through a twenty-second e d itio n . 29. Susanne How, Novels o f Empire, quoted by Martin Tucker, A fric a In Modern L i t e r a t u r e (New York: F red erick Ungar P u b lish in g Company7 1967)* P* 8. 30. The F a ir Qod, p. 8 l 31. For example, Pat tie sa id of Mexican courage: "I have no f a it h in the courage of these people, except when they have g re a tly the advantage, o r can k i l l In the dark, w ithout danger to them selves. This In my view Is the amount o f a S p a n ia rd 's b ra v ery ." Quoted, Robinson, p. 44. 32. W illiam s, Vol. I , p. 225. 33- Robinson, p. 1 3 6. 34. Although P r e s le y 's comment to the Mexican cen te n arian was a d ir e c t response to the o f f e r to share the con te n ts o f the horn snuffbox, what he is acknowledging Is th a t: "Romance was dead. He had liv e d too l a t e , (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), p. 14. 35. M a g g i e a n d O t h e r S t o r i e s ( N e w Y o r k : W a s h i n g t o n S q u a r e P r e s s , I n c . , i 9 6 0), p . 20o. 3 6 . Although no o f f i c i a l record has ever been produced a b o i t .h l s deSfch, sources In d ic a te th at Bierce was shot fo r d e s e rtio n — an ending q u ite In keeping fo r a w r ite r w ith a s in g u la r a p p re c ia tio n of the sardonic^ See George S t e r l i n g 's In tro d u c tio n to AmbroseBierce, 79 In the Midst o f L ife (New York: The Modern L ib rary , I n c . , 1927), PP* v i i - x i . 37. (New York: D ell P ublish ing Company, I n c ., 1 9 6 1). In h is In tro d u ctio n to the novel, A lb ert J . Guerard comments on the relevance o f the Republic o r Costaguana to our own time : "Nostromo Is not y e t, e n t i r e l y , an h i s t o r i c a l novel. The re g u la r to r tu rin g o f p o l i t i c a l opponents was almost a thing o f the past in the Costaguana o f the novel but was rep o rted from Paraguay on the day I wrote these l i n e s . The dependence o f a backward Costaguana Is r e f le c te d In the p resen t p lig h t o f B o liv ia ." (p. 19) And, I t should be added, much o f the r e s t o f L atin America. 3 8 . Lesley Byrd Simpson, Many Mexlcos (New York: G. P. Putnam *s Sons, 1946), p. 2bo. Simpson's views of the Mexican re v o lu tio n and the p o s t-re v o lu tio n a ry period are shared by some the the w rite r s who knew him w e ll In Mexico In the 193°®* p a r ti c u l a r ly Kath e rin e Anne P o rte r. 39. L i t t l e Mexico (New York: P eter Smith, 1947), p. 139. The ^lik en e ss" o f the p o r t r a i t Is a tte s te d to by Dlego R ivera, the re v o lu tio n a ry a r t i s t , In a l e t t e r da,ted, August 29* 1931, which serves as foreward to the book: "Your p o r t r a i t s have the acuteness and grace o f those p ainted by c e r ta in masters in my country who died before I was born." 40. Simpson, p. 244. 41. The sun-worshlpplng serv ic e I saw in the church in 1967 Is not an is o la te d in stan ce o f the "Indian" nature o f C atholicism In Mexico. 42. Simpson, p. 2 8 3* 43. Trans. Lysander Kemp (New York: Grove P re s s , I n c . , 1961) P. 57. 44. The Meeting o f Bast and West (New York: The Macmillan Company, l9*»b), p. 5^. 80 U 5 . One o f the Mexican legends th a t appears in many versio ns Is repeated by Frank Doble* The Mexico I Like (D ellas: U n iv ersity Press* 1942). in Yhat a man s e ts out fo r find the r ig h t madrlna (godmother) fo r his son; but no one he meets proves s a ti s f a c to r y u n t i l he encounters Death on the Day o f the Dead and chooses her sin ce: "In your ways o f J u s tic e and mercy you are the only frie n d o f the poor* and you are the most powerful o f powers." (pp. 1 7 2 -7 3 ) 46. The World o f Goya (New York: Clarkson N. P otter* Inc., l*> y), p. 15. Lewis r e f e r s to what Qregorlo Maranon has c a lle d the S p an iard s' v isio n lu cld a de la m uerte, c a ll i n g I t "a n a tio n a l a s s e t fo r too many c e n tu rie s to perm it queasy shudders over s k u lls and bones." (p. 13) 47. B e y o n d t h e M e x l q u e B a y ( N e w Y o r k : V i n t a g e B o o k s , 1 9 0 0), p. 43. 48. T h e D e s e r t M u s i c a n d O t h e r P o e m s ( N e w Y o r k : R a n d o m { T o u i e * 1954), pp. 89-90':-------------- 49. Id o ls Behind A lta rs (New York: Payson & Clarke L td ., 1929), p. 25. She says f u r th e r : The s k u ll Is the symbol of the thing which lik e rain* the trees* the c o lo rs and the moving b ird s is caught* co n tro lled * and made Into l a s t i n g v is ib le l i f e . And I t Is the a r t i s t ' s way* as I t Is the Mexican way* to d isreg a rd o th e r things fo r the sake o f making Images? (P. 26) 50. Robinson* p. 264. 51. P r e s c o t t 's view* mild compared with many expressions o f d i s t a s t e fo r Mexican r e lig io n — C atholicism — Is re p re s e n ta tiv e o f the n in e te e n th cen tury a t t i t u d e he held i t to be "divorced" from m o rality and so concerned w ith form and e la b o ra te ceremony th a t: "in the p u n c tilio u s a tte n tio n to d i s c i p lin e , the s p i r i t o f C h r is tia n ity was perm itted to e v a p o ra te ." (pp. 6 8 5- 8 6 ) 52. pie Land o f J o ^ e v s ' Ending (New York: The Century company, 1924) p. 31b. 53* C . A, B u r l a n d ( N e w Y o r k : G . P . P u t n a m ' s S o n s * 1 9 6 7), p. 130. 81 5**. Burning W ater, p. 72. 55* Spence*s works, including The Myths o f Mexico and Peru, The C iv iliz a tio n o f X n clen tM ex ico . Magic and HySTerleB o f Mexico, were used e x te n siv e ly by D, H. Lawrence and Malcolm Lowry, 5 6 . The Myths o f Mexico and Peru (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, n.dVJT, p. v l i . 57. "Education of the P eop le," Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers o f D. H. Lawrence, ed. Edward kcbonaXd (toew York: The Viking P re s s , 1936), p. 6 5 9 . 5 8 . The C ollected Novels o f Conrad Aiken (New York: rfolt, b in e h a rt and Winston, 19&4), p. ^35* 59. The only route from the U.S. to Mexico besides "the old Laredo Road," which was considered hazardous even a f t e r World War I I , was the r a ilr o a d . In h is account of the t r i p south with D. H. Lawrence, W itte r Bynner d escribes how exp losive the s it u a tio n was. "Luring our p ro tra c te d t r i p from the border to Mexico C ity we had seen w ith wondering i n t e r e s t th a t armed s o ld ie rs rode on the tops of c a rs . D isturbances had been repo rted in our North American papers; but we had not re a liz e d th a t trains on the main route were l i a b l e to a t t a c k ." Journey w ith GenluB (New York: The John Day Company, 1951 )# p. 3 5 . 6 0 . William York T in d a ll, D. H. Lawrence and Susan His Cow (New York: Columbi'sT U n iv ersity P re s s , X933), P*57* C H A P T E R I I I H . LAWRENCE AND "TH E DARK GODS" 82 83 T h e p s y c h i c q u e s t t h a t t o o k D . H . L a w r e n c e t o M e x i c o I n 1 9 2 3 b e g a n e v e n b e f o r e h i s b i r t h t h i r t y - s e v e n y e a r s e a r l i e r . " I b e l i e v e m y m o t h e r h a t e d m y f a t h e r b e f o r e I w a s b o r n . T h a t w a s a d e a t h I n h e r v e i n s f o r m e b e f o r e I ! 1 ' I w a s b o r a / 1 o n e o f t h e c h a r a c t e r s I n h i s e a r l i e s t n o v e l a c c u r a t e l y m l r r o r a t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p o f h i s o w n p a r e n t s , 1 A n d d u r i n g h i s c h i l d h o o d a n d a d o l e s c e n c e h a t r e d g r e w , a s s h e d e l i b e r a t e l y s o u g h t t o s e p a r a t e h i m a n d t h e o t h e r f o u r c h i l d r e n f r o m t h e f a t h e r — a l l t h a t w a s s h a d o w a n d d a r k e r s e l f . M r s . L a w r e n c e , I n h e r p r e t e n s i o n s a n d p r e a c h m e n t s , w a s a n e m b o d i m e n t o f " e g o , " w i t h u t t e r b e l i e f I n t h e a b i l i t y o f t h e m i n d a n d t h e w i l l t o a c h i e v e a n y t h i n g , f r o m p e r s o n a l s a l v a t i o n t o a p l a c e a m o n g t h e g e n t l e - f o l k — a c o n s i d e r a b l y m o r e d i f f i c u l t t a s k t h a n t h e f o r m e r f o r m e m b e r s o f a l o w l e v e l o f t h e w o r k i n g c l a s s . T h a t c o u l d b e d o n e , s h e f e l t , b y c a s t i n g o u t t h e m i n e r - f a t h e r a n d a l l t h a t h e r e p r e s e n t e d . S h e w o r k e d a t t h a t a s s i d u o u s l y , L a w r e n c e r e m e m b e r e d l a t e r : g a t h e r i n g t h e c h i l d r e n I n a 1 r o w t o w a i t f o r t h e i r f a t h e r t o r e t u r n , p a i n t i n g h i s s h o r t c o m i n g s I n h e r v i v i d C h a p e l l a n g u a g e s o t h a t w h e n h e a p p e a r e d I t w a s a s I f s h e h a d c o n j u r e d u p S a t a n I h i m s e l f . T h e n : " S h e w o u l d b u r s t o u t u p o n h i m , r e v i l i n g him fo r a drunken s o t, a good-for-nothing f a th e r . She would tu rn to the whimpering c h ild re n and ask i f they were not d isg u sted with such a f a th e r . . . ."2 Not unexpectedly, the b rig h t and s e n s itiv e c h ild learned h is lessons b e t t e r than h is b ro th e rs and s i s t e r s . During a tea a t the Lawrence house, one of h is childhood | frie n d s remembered th a t she was "almost frig h ten e d " by the h a te fu l fe e lin g "Bert" e x h ib ite d to h is f a th e r . And a f t e r Mr. Lawrence had l e f t , B e r t's mother proudly compared h is behavior with th a t of h is s i s t e r : "He h ates h is f a th e r . That l i t t l e minx w ill s i t on h is knee, but not the boy. . . . He h ates h is f a t h e r . "3 In s p ite of th a t h a tre d , Lawrence unconsciously absorbed an Image of h is f a th e r as an "exuberant s p i r i t , a tru e p a g an .H e sensed th a t working underground In the darkness of the p i t , h is f a th e r and the o th er miners had achieved a "physical awareness and Intim ate to g e th e rn e ss," which enabled them to escape the deadness of mechanization: When the men came up Into the l i g h t , they b link ed. They had, In a measure, to change t h e i r flow. N ev erth eless, they brought with them above ground the curious dark Intimacy of the mine, the naked s o r t of c o n ta c t, and i f I th in k of my childhood, I t Is always as I f th ere was a lu s tro u s s o rt of Inner darkness, lik e the g lo ss of c o a l, In which we moved and had our r e a l b e in g .5 Between the mother-approved commandment to "Honor thy 85 f a th e r ," which was p a rt of the Tuesday evening sermon- l i s te n in g and hymn-slnglng, and the mother-encouraged urglngs to "H ate," i t is not a sto n ish in g th a t Lawrence su ffe re d psychic sc a rs and fragm entation. They were f u r th e r enhanced by an awareness of the d iffe re n c e between; ; the world of h is mother — the everyday world of N otting- . hamshlre s la g heaps and sooted b u ild in g s and cheap lace I c u r ta in s — and the world of h is f a th e r : the strange underworld of darkness and beauty where men were man- gods.6 The e f f o r t to re c o n c ile the w arring fe e lin g s almost destroyed him, s p i r i t u a l l y , se x u a lly , and psych o lo g ically . I t made him "his own god — and a ls o hla own h e l l . "7 No one, perhaps le a s t of a l l Lawrence, h im self, could be p re c is e ly sure who or what he was. According to Katherine M ansfield, th ere were th re e Lawrences: "The black d e v il, whom she h ated; the prophet, In whom she did not b elie v e ; and the man and the a r t i s t , whom she loved and v a l u e d . N o r m a n Douglas said th e re was "something of the E rd g e lst In hlm"9; the Indians a t Taos c a lle d him "Red W olf."10 Knud M errlld, the Danish p a in te r who observed him a t c lo s e r range than almost any o th er human being except h is w ife, said : 86 I f be was one th in g , he was a ls o the o p p o site. I f he was sunshine and h e a t, he was a ls o darkness and r a in . He was not Ju st one co lo u r, but the combination of them a l l . He was the whole ra in b o w .il Even In h is appearance, Lawrence was a changeling. To i | Achsah Barlow Brew ster, who saw him f i r s t le s s than two j | y ears before he went to Mexico, w ith the sun sh in in g on | I h is "warm brown, h a i r , making h is beard f l i c k e r In red i | flames on h is long c h in ," with eyes the blue of sea and sky, he resembled both Pan — the "curiously unmodeled mouth” — and "the C h rist fig u re on many a carved c r u c i f i x , ” with h is g en tle e x p ressio n , drooping head, high cheek-bones . 12 I n te r e s tin g as the divided s e l f may be to o th e rs , I t Is a torment to the p o ssesso r. The fragm entation a ffe c te d him se x u a lly . U n til he met Frieda Weekley, the Oerman wife of a Nottingham Uni v e r s ity p ro fe sso r and the daughter of Baron von Richthofen, 1 he was Incapable of r e a l iz in g a normal r e la tio n s h ip with a woman. The day before h is m other's fu n e ra l he to ld h is childhood sw eetheart: " I 'v e loved her - - lik e a lo v er — t h a t 's why I could never love y o u ."*3 And d e s p ite h is presumably p assio n ate r e la tio n s h ip with F ried a, the lo v e r- i ghost was never com pletely ex o rc ise d . Twelve y ears a f t e r ; i | h is m other's death and eleven a f t e r h is elopement with I L ... . . 87 F ried a, he was c a llin g to the " v irg in mother" to come back: Inelde my Innermost h e a rt, ^ Where the v irg in In woman comes home to a man. . . . ! i I I t a lso l e f t him with very stro n g homoerotic ten d en cies, | i I which found only p a r t i a l re le a s e In h is w ritin g s , from The White Peacock to Lady C h a tte r le y 's Lover, In which he d e lin e a te d with ex tra o rd in a ry s e n s i t i v i t y , thanks to F rie d a 's In s ig h ts , the sexual experiences and a t t i tu d e s of women.*5 He was tormented s o c ia lly as w ell as sexually by the fragm entation. Like h is mother, he had worked to gain adm ittance to a higher c la s s — h is own e f f o r t coupled with h is au dacity In having persuaded a baroness to elope with him. But unlike H. 0. Wells and B arrie and o th er i upward s t r l v e r s of h is tim e, he was never able to make the tr a n s f e r to the middle c la s s . However charming and educated and 'good' middle c la s s people might be, he f e l t , they stopped some p a rt of him "from working." He sa id : I cannot make the tr a n s f e r from my own c la s s Into the middle c la s s . I cannot, not f o r anything In the world, f o r f e i t my p assio n al consciousness and my old b lo o d -a f fIn tty with my fellow-men and the animals and the land, fo r th a t o th er th in , spurious mental c o n c e it which Is a l l th a t Is l e f t of the mental consciousness once I t has made I t s e l f exclusive.!® I On the o th er hand, the narrow In te llig e n c e and outlook and the p re ju d ic e s of the working c la s s made I t Impossible f o r him to accept th a t " p r i s o n . " He found some kind of peace ! In liv in g b esid e, not with, peasants and peons in I t a l y , | New Mexico, and Mexico - - as many of h is heroes and heroines do — absorbing a t remote t h e i r "human flow" and 1 making co n tact with "something th a t Is non-human, non- f o c a l." (p. 14) Perhaps the most Important of the s p l i t s and ambiva lences was the lo v e -lo a th in g fo r death and the love- lo a th in g f o r l i f e th a t haunted him. In h is d e s c rip tio n and defense of the form of the Paul Morel novel to Edward i G arnett, he concluded the "Idea" with the words: "He Is l e f t In the end naked of ev ery th in g , with the d r i f t toward d e a th ." The completed novel, Sons and Lovers, ends otherw ise, with Paul clenching h is f i s t s , determined th a t:i "he would not give in. . . . He would not take th a t i d i r e c tio n , to the darkness, to follow h er. He walked towards the f a i n t l y humming, glowing town, q u ic k ly ." 1? But Lawrence continued to be lured by the Idea of I death . "Death Is g lo rio u s ," he wrote years l a t e r . His i re c u rrin g dream, expressed In book a f t e r book is to be a t once a "Lord of L ife" and "Lord of Death," a Lord of Darkness and a Lord of L ight. His obsession with recon- I c l l l n g s u n - lif e w ith death -dark helps to ex p lain h is 89 f a s c in a tio n with Mexico and Egypt, where they are linked to g eth er by the concept of the c h ie f g od's having to f ig h t | I h is way each n ig h t through the underw orld,1® That strange! i ! Journey appealed to him as one way of lin k in g to g eth er h is sep a rate s e lv e s . His dream of achieving self-h ood and freedom through death is most co n c retely expressed in h is having adopted as h is perso nal symbol the phoenix, the m ythical b ird t h a t , consumed by f i r e , r i s e s again from i t s own ash e s. That symbol. I n te r e s tin g ly , was a ls o adopted by Malcolm Lowry, another psychic voyager to Mexico, who wrote of h is second t r i p th e re : And I f th ere was a c e r ta in adm ission of f a i l u r e about I t , I t was on the grand s c a le . I t was as I f the fu n e ra l p ile had proved Inadequate to the phoenix, and he had to look around him fo r another kind of Immolation In the depths of the p a s t. And he would fin d h is old s e l f here In Mexico I f anywhere, I f not q u ite the old s e l f he had meant: he would come h e re , I f anywhere, face to face as w ell as w ith, he hoped Fernando, with ev ery th in g th a t the s e l f had Im perfectly tran sc en d ed .*9 Lawrence's profound a lie n a tio n led him, as I t had led C a rly le , f o r example — and th e re are ex tra o rd in a ry sim i l a r i t i e s between the two men in outlook and s t y l i s t i c d aring — to escape Into an Imaginary p ast th a t might be recap tu red among more p rim itiv e people and in to a dream of an Ideal s o c ie ty th a t he would c re a te fo r the fu tu re . Like C a rly le , Lawrence was e s s e n t ia l l y concerned with the s p i r i t u a l and moral nature of a s o c ie ty . His s o c ia l c r itic is m — and be Is , as Octavio Paz says, "one of the most profound and v io le n t s o c ia l c r i t i c s of our tim e "®0 — Is b a s ic a lly r e li g io u s . Other c r i t i c s have commented on th a t aspect of Lawrence. Mark Spllka c a l l s him "a r e l i g i ous a r t i s t " and says th a t " a ll hla work was governed by r e lig io u s en d s ." 21 Graham Hough a ls o s tr e s s e s the s p i r i tu a l nature of Lawrence: I g rad u ally came to f e e l th a t the only re c e n t English w r ite r besides Yeats to break Into new s p i r i t u a l t e r r i t o r y o u tsid e the C h ristia n bounda r i e s was D. H, Lawrence, and th a t h is v ita lis m had something of the same d is ru p tiv e and f e r t i l i s i n g e f f e c t In our century as a e s th e tic ls m did In the n in e te e n th . 22 C h r is tia n ity , as exem plified In the c r u c if ie d C h rist and organized r e lig io n sickened Lawrence, although he said th a t I f he had liv e d In the year 400 he would have been"a tru e and p assio n ate C h ris tia n . An a d v e n tu re r." But, he added, "now I liv e In 1924, and the C h ris tia n venture Is done. The adventure Is gone out of C h r is tia n ity . W e must s t a r t on a new venture towards God."®3 The new venture would, he b eliev ed , lik e an cien t cosmic th e o rie s r e s to r e the accord between science and r e lig io n and — unlike C h r is tia n ity — acknowledge th a t "mystic dualism" (p. 2 3 3 ) th a t e x i s t s In the liv in g cosmos; and In a l l c reated l i f e , allow ing man to liv e In "fo urfold 91 a c ti v i ty " a f t e r the manner proposed by Blake, ao th a t: He knows the sweet s p i r i t u a l communion, and Is a t | the sane time a sword to enforce the s p i r i t u a l ! le v e l; he knows the ten d er unspeakable sensual | communion, but he Is a t i g e r a g a in st anyone who would abate h is pride and l i b e r t y , (p. 2 3 7 ) i Lawrence's h o rro r of the p re se n t, with I t s m a te ria l- ' i Ism, v io len ce, and c o rru p tio n , and h is lo ath in g of the m a t e r i a l i s t i c , v io le n t, and co rru p t hollow men who Inhabited the world made him yearn fo r a " liv in g , w orship f u l universe" In which men w illin g ly subm itted t h e i r souls to dead and liv in g gods In order to achieve wholeness. His f a v o r ite world, William York T in d a ll has pointed ou t, was r e a l ly a n t e d i l u v i a n ^ — due In no small p a rt to Madame Blavatsky and the th e o s o p h is ts . They gave him the Idea of a p rim itiv e r e lig io u s Utopia and the b e l i e f th a t an cien t myths and symbols rev ealed "the way of under standing and r e t u r n . ” Since Journeying In space may a ls o be a way of Journeying in tim e, Lawrence followed upon the suggestions of Madame Blavatsky th a t p rim itiv e people might s t i l l be In touch with those an cien t b e t t e r days: Hindus, Mexican I and American In d ian s, I t a l i a n peasants who m aintained some m ystical c o n ta c t with the vanished E truscan c u ltu r e . "P rim itiv e" p rim itiv e s who lacked a g lo rio u s p ast were i I not of I n t e r e s t to him. He was frig h te n e d and even i i — 92 re v o lte d by the people of the South Seas and c a lle d men who attem pted to liv e th a t l i f e " r e n e g a d e . "^5 ! Having f a il e d to get In touch In a number of p la c e s, | i Lawrence was determined to e s ta b lis h th a t connection In i i ! America, where the l o s t wonders of Madame B lav atsk y 's ; A tla n tis might s t i l l be remembered. ^6 Hts readin gs In The Oolden Bough o ffe red support fo r th a t no tio n since F razer had lin k ed the New World Indian c u ltu re s with those of Egypt and the East through myths and r i t u a l s th a t re c a lle d the splendor o f days when kings were p r i e s t s . A fter a l l h is disappointm ents In the East and the South Seas, Lawrence f e l t th a t he was beginning to see lig h t In New Mexico. Even though an Individual Indian of the s o r t one encountered around Albuquerque might be a w aster and "an in cre d ib ly low dog," le s s r e lig io u s than a j New York t h i e f , th ere was hope f o r him fo r: . . . while a t r i b e r e ta in s I t s r e lig io n and keeps up I t s r e lig io u s p r a c tic e s , and while any member of the t r i b e shares in those p r a c tic e s , then th e re Is a t r i b a l i n te g r ity and a liv in g t r a d i t i o n going back f a r beyond the b ir th of C h ris t, beyond the pyramids, beyond Moses. . . .28 He f e l t th a t he could s t i l l f e e l in the atmosphere on ! c e r ta in oocaslons "the o ld , old ro o t of human conscious ness s t i l l reaching down to depths we know nothing o f ." I ; ( p . l**5) 93 What New Mexico suggested, he f e l t , Mexico su rely possessed. Lewis Spence's Myths of Mexico and Peru seemed to o f f e r proof p o s itiv e , and Lawrence was undoubtedly much i a ffe c te d by Spence's claim of the "richness and In te r e s t" j of Mexico's pre-Columbian p a s t.^ 9 Also, he was a t t r a c te d ! to Spence's Ideas about the dualism of Mexican mythology —i the love of l i f e and the obsession with death , the stru g g le of l i g h t and darkness, c r e a tiv e force and d e s tru c tiv e e n e rg ie s. He g l o r i f i e s Q u e tz alco atl, the god who came from the e a s t to teach Mexicans the a r t s of l i f e and c iv i l i z a t i o n , and who l e f t — with the promise of r e s u r r e c tio n and r e tu r n . Spence laments the d e s tru c tiv e n e s s of the S paniards, but f e e ls th a t windows e x i s t through which we can see the g lo r ie s of the p a s t. In s p ite of t h e i r obvious b ia s e s , P re sc o tt and Bernal Diaz d el C a s t ill o , whom Lawrence a ls o read , confirmed h is fe e lin g about the grandeur of the Aztec th e o c ra tic s t a t e . He had no qualms about the murderous n atu re of many p ra c tic e s since he f e l t I t was an e x e rc ise of the l i f e force r a th e r than the mechanical s o r t of k i l l i n g th a t had taken place during World War I , done "in d isc rim in a te ly and with a fe e lin g of e x a lte d rig h te o u s n e s s ." 30 Mexico a lso In te re s te d him as a place where he might e s ta b lis h Rananlm, th a t r e li g io u s - s o c i a l Utopia he had dreamed about fo r almost a decade. In 1915* when he f i r s t began to expound h is plan to men lik e Aldous Huxley and John Middleton Murry, he had s e le c te d F lo rid a as the s i t e of the i d e a l i s t i c goal — which was "to be e s ta b lis h e d on the assumption of goodness In I t s members, Instead of the assumption of b ad n e ss."3* Subsequently, as Huxley has pointed o u t. I t became Corn w a ll, the Andes, S ic ily , Mexico, and Hew Mexico. Huxley, who had agreed to go on t h e i r f i r s t meeting In 1 9 1 5, l a t e r s a id : F o rtu n a te ly , no doubt, the F lo rid a scheme f e l l through. C itie s of Ood have always crumbled; and Lawrence's c ity — h is v il la g e , r a th e r , fo r he hated c i t i e s — h is V illage of the Dark Ood would d o u b tless have d is in te g r a te d lik e a l l the r e s t . I t was perhaps b e t t e r th a t I t should have remained, as I t was always to rem ain, a p ro je c t and a hope. And I knew t h i s even as I said th a t I would jo in the colony, (p. xxlx) In 1923, however, Rananlm was very much In Lawrence's mind as he Journeyed Into Mexico. There, su re ly , the s p i r i t of place would l i g h t the path fo r the so u l. He hoped, too, th a t I t would renew In s p ira tio n — th a t tr a v e l would give him th a t " e c s ta tic agony" he needed f o r c r e a t i o n .32 Mexico was to do t h a t . Lawrence f i r s t seems to have become se rio u s ly I n t e r e s te d In America "as a new and promising co n tin en t" during 1912 and 1 9 1 3 .3 3 in 1915 h is d e s ire to go th ere i n t e n s i f i e d , not s u rp ris in g ly con sid erin g h is s e r ie s of em otional shocks. He and F ried a, a f t e r t h e i r re tu r n from England to challenge poverty and r e je c tio n with hope, had been spied upon and u ltim a te ly forced to leave Cornwall as suspected t r a i t o r s ; The Rainbow was suppressed fo r im m orality,3^ F riends r a l l i e d to help the couple s t a r t l i f e anew on a c i t r u s p la n ta tio n In Ja c k so n v ille , F lo rid a ; Lady O tto lln e M orrell gave the Lawrences twenty pounds and persuaded George Bernard Shaw and o th ers to c o n t r i b u t e .35 Nothing came of t h a t , nor of subsequent attem pts In 1917 and 1919. Amy Lowell, who had b efriended him sub s t a n t i a l l y , warned him a g a in st expecting too much. New England, she said In response to h is p ro te s ts about the lack of an a p p re c ia tiv e B r itis h audience, "would not re ceiv e him c o r d ia lly ," (p. 252) He decided to w a it, but he continued to dream about America even though the next few y ears — In I ta l y c h ie f ly - - were r e l a t i v e l y happy i and e x tr a o r d in a r ily productive o n e s , 36 He did not have a concept of any brave new world or a no tion th a t Americans would prove more congenial than Englishmen or Germans. In S tu dies In C lassic American I L ite r a tu r e , f i r s t w ritte n In 1918* Lawrence advances the Idea th a t "having conquered and destroyed the In stIn c* t l v e , impulsive being In h im s e lff " the American has a ls o become a m achine.37 j n a l e t t e r w ritte n some time e a r l i e r to C atherine Carswell* he was even more e x p l i c i t : "Don't th in k I have any Illu s io n s about the people* the l i f e . The people and the l i f e are m onstrous." (p. 48l) However* since America* which was "so much worse* fa lse r* f u r th e r along than England*" I t had "dry r o tte d to a point where the f i n a l seed of the new Is almost l e f t ready to s p ro u t." (P. *82) At any rate* In October 1921, he was w ritin g from Taormina to the Brewsters about his plan to get a l i t t l e farm somewhere by him self *- In Mexico* New Mexico* Rocky Mountains* or B r itis h C o l u m b i a . 3® And a day l a t e r , he wrote to Amy Lowell: Do you have any fe e lin g about Mexico? I have an Idea 1 should lik e to go th ere — and have some place In the country* with a goat and a b i t of a garden. But my compass-needle Is a s h if ty d e v il, (p. 7 9 ) Within a month a magnetic force was a t work on th a t n eedle. Mabel Dodge Sterne* a formidable female who had chosen Taos as the l i k e l i e s t s i t e fo r the "Art Empire" she proposed to c re a te and dominate* took a c tio n . Having read Sea and S a rd in ia * she decided th a t Lawrence was Ju st the man to d esc rib e h er f a v o rite p lace. She was a lso hopeful th a t the Intim ate r e la tio n s h ip he seemed to be able to e s ta b lis h with the ' s p i r i t of p la c e ' could be p a r a lle le d by a r e la tio n s h ip with her. L e tte rs and cables were supplemented by n ig h tly M c a ll s " - - sessio n s during which she and Tony Luhan, her Indian ch auffeur and husband to be, "w illed Lawrence to c o m e . "39 Troubled about M abel's designs on h is person as w ell as h is t a l e n t , Lawrence veered and accepted the I n v ita tio n of E arl and Achsah Brewster to v i s i t them In Ceylon, where E arl was pursuing h is Buddhist s t u d i e s .^ 0 I l l and unhappy in Ceylon, the Lawrences soon pressed on to America, stopping along the way fo r sev e ral months In A u s tra lia , where he wrote Kangaroo. There he a lso became involved In a c o lla b o ra tiv e p ro je c t with M ollle L. Skinner, a n urse, which re s u lte d In The Boy In the Bush. F rieda and Lawrence a rriv e d In San Francisco In September, 1922, with about twenty d o lla r s In cash to begin to liv e out M abel's dream and h is . Less than two weeks l a t e r the beginning of the end was In s ig h t. D espite Mrs. S te rn e 's e n th u s ia s tic plans and the charming co ttag e she had b u i l t fo r them, handsomely fu rn ish e d with Indian and home-made fu r n itu r e and with Mexican and Navajo ru g s, Lawrence was c h a ffin g : "The draw back Is , of course, liv in g under the wing of the *padrona,* She Is generous and nice - - but s t i l l , I d o n 't f e e l f r e e , I c a n ’t breathe my own a i r and go my own way." 41 F rieda was even more d istu rb e d . She had managed — by fu rio u s sweeping and sin ging a t the top of her voice — to end Lawrence's working with h is h o stess on a book; but she was determined to e f f e c t a complete sep a ra tio n of church (Lawrence) from M a b e l-sta te . 42 They f le d , f i r s t to M abel's ranch In the mountains and, a f t e r she pursued them, to the Del Monte Ranch, with the two Danish p a in te rs she d e te s te d . That w in ter was one of almost in c re d ib le hardships fo r the Lawrences and Knud M errll and Kal Gfotzsche. They had to cut t h e i r own wood, tr a v e l t h i r t y or fo rty m iles to the hot sp rings to bathe, chop holes in the Ice of the stream near the ranch to get w ater fo r washing and cook ing. Frequently they had to melt snow on the stove to get drin k in g w ater; and to wash themselves they went o u t doors and took rubdowns In the s n o w . 4 3 Frieda scrubbed c lo th e s and l e f t them to whiten on the snow; Lawrence, "a splendid cook," baked bread and performed o th er chores. He had a love of doing th in g s , M errlld rep o rted l a t e r : "Even the most t r i v i a l he did w ith c a re , I f not r e a l Joy. I t was almost a r e lig io n with him" - - whether I t was 99 Iro n in g , r e p a irin g a ro o f, chopping wood, washing f lo o r s , (pp. 83-*0 The labor was much too hard fo r him; he was already s u ffe rin g from pulmonary t u b e r c u l o s i s . ^ Not unexpectedly, with fo u r strong ly opinionated j people is o la te d to g e th e r, th ere were plenty of "emotional ! f ig h ts and heated d i s c u s s io n s ."**5 N evertheless, I t was i one of the h ap p iest times fo r him and fo r them. M errlld said of I t l a t e r : " . . . th ere was always an undercurrent of something I cannot e x p lain . A unity of manly to g e th e r ness, understanding, f i d e l i t y . W e were a t peace even In the d istu rb a n c e s ." (p. 8 5 ) Lawrence revived h is dream of , e s ta b lis h in g Rananlm In Mexico with Frieda and the Danes, ! saying: When we have ourselves firm ly e s ta b lis h e d , then we can add one or two more of our frie n d s a t a time and l e t the th in g grow slowly Into f u l l being, and the new l i f e w ill grow and spread u n t i l I t embraces the whole world, (p. 2 5 1) To prepare fo r t h a t , Lawrence stu d ied T e rry 's Mexi can guidebook and a Spanish grammar, and made plans fo r ! ! the Journey . **6 When the t a l l , th in red-bearded man with f i e r c e , blue i eyes and snub nose, and h is wife - - ample, blonde P rled a, ; with h er "beaming sm ile and booming v o i c e c r o s s e d the 100 f r o n t i e r to Mexico on March 21, 1923# I t was the f i r s t stage of a Journey th a t was to have profound sig n ific a n c e fo r Lawrence and fo r modern l i t e r a t u r e . i A ctually, the Mexican experience — although not i | long — Involved th ree sep arate phases. The f i r s t la s te d from March u n t i l Ju ly , during which time he found his c r e a tiv e voice again, a f t e r a troublesome s ile n c e . He i and Prleda were Joined a week a f t e r t h e i r a r r i v a l by W itter Bynner and h is frie n d W illard (Spud) Johnson. Bynner has provided a c ru e l account of the b r i e f stay In Mexico City and the longer one a t Chapala, where Lawrence was to begin and end the f i r s t d r a f t of The Plumed Serpent during May and June. Although Bynner'a book Is e n t i t l e d Journey with Qenlus, I t p a in ts a p o r t r a i t of a madman (driven by t e r r o r and frenzy ) and a boor ( b a tt li n g with h is wife In every public p lace , d is tu rb in g the peace of every p riv a te gathering).**® Lawrence's fe e lin g s about Mexico were am bivalent. Even before tak in g o f f , h is fe a rs about violence and death were exacerbated by T e rry 's ominous warnings and by a c tu a l ev en ts. W ilfred Ewart, an Englishman whom the Lawrences met in New Mexico, was k i l le d In Mexico C ity a few weeks a f t e r t h e i r f i r s t encounter. While leaning a g a in st the | Iron r a i l i n g of the balcony of h is h o te l room watching a 101 f e s t i v a l , he had been f a t a l l y sh o t. Lawrence refu sed to accept th a t I t was an accident caused by a drunken c e le b ra n t. "I d o n 't th ink s o / 1 he to ld Bynner d ark ly . 1 1 1 d o n 't th in k so. I b eliev e t h a t 's an e v il country down j th e r e ." (p. 17) N onetheless, w ith in a month he was I j planning to head south. T e rry 's view of Mexico and i t s In h a b ita n ts , which I Lawrence had been absorbing during the w inter a t the ranch, presented a stran ge c o n tra s t to the glowing accounts of Spence, Madame B lavatsky, and some of the o th er w rite r s who dwelt on the p o s s i b i l i t y of fin d in g In Mexico's p resen t a splendid p a s t. T e rry 's view was | gloomier and more p r a c t ic a l . He cautioned th a t foods i were f e r t i l i z e d with "unspeakable f i l t h " and cooked by persons who mix salad s with t h e i r fin g e rs and " s p it in fry in g pans to determ ine the tem perature." Yellow fe v e r, ch o lera, m alaria, typhoid, typhus — any or a l l , he warned, might r e s u l t from e a tin g or sleep in g or Just b reath in g "the dangerous n ight a i r . "^9 He held th a t the people were no le s s th re a te n in g than the p lace , r e f e r r in g to them as pelados (skinned ones) and i gente s in rason (people w ithout re a so n ): "densely ignorant and very e x a sp e ra tin g ." Because they were dominated by "Inflammable p a ssio n s," Terry s a id , a "prudent man" w ill i ! 102 never touch one In anger; "fo r he promptly r e s o r ts to the kn ife to s e t t l e d i f f i c u l t i e s , and, as a r u l e , values l i f e i ! as li g h tl y as an O rie n ta l f a t a l i s t . " (p. lxv) Thieves I ; 1 were so numerous and w ily, Terry cau tio n ed , th a t: "Nothing i : is considered safe from the Mexican ladrrfn, and as a ru le nothing p o rta b le is ever l e f t out of doors — even in the day tim e." (p. l x v l l l ) T e r ry 's warnings were given emphasis In Mexico C ity , where by b ls a rr e chance Bynner and Johnson were I n s ta lle d In the very h o te l room where W ilfred Ewart had d ie d . As a r e s u l t of warnings and prom ises, Lawrence's correspon dence during the f i r s t two months of the Mexican Journey In d ic a te s h is u n c e rta in ty - - not merely from one day to an o th er, but from one hour to an other. Two l e t t e r s to Knud M errlld, both dated A pril 23, 1923, Ind icate t h i s . In one, he sa id : I 'v e had about enough of th is country and c o n t i n en t. Think we s h a ll s a i l a t the end of t h i s month to New York and, a t the end of May, s a i l fo r Europe. T h a t's what I intend to d o .50 In the o th e r: I'm s t i l l going to look f o r a place here. Oolng to see aD an e who has a farm, tomorrow. — Send your address to t h is h o te l the moment you have a p lace . . . . There Is a quick railw ay down from Los Angeles to G uadalajara, where I th in k we may s e t t l e . . . . (p. 2 9 2 ) 103 And In a l e t t e r on June 4, w ritte n a f t e r he had s e t t l e d In Chapala and was working on the f i r s t v ersio n of The Plumed S erp e n t, he described l i f e a t Zaragoza #4, with "a whole stack of se rv a n ts and sem i-serv ants liv in g a t the end of the house" and a man sleep in g on the veranda to p ro te c t them from b a n d its . He f i r s t In s is te d : "Mexico Is s t i l l much more fun than the U.S.A. — much w ild e r." But In the next paragraph he w rite : "I th in k I s h a ll give up t h i s house a t the end of the month - - and probably go to New York, stay th ere not more than a f o r t n i g h t , then go to England." (p. 301) That, as he pointed o u t, was what he had "promised to do." He did not keep h is promise to P rled a. In ste a d , a f t e r a stay In New York and what seems to have been a fu rio u s q u a rre l on the p ie r a t the l a s t m inute,51 Frieda s a ile d alone fo r England on August 18. Lawrence then headed west to Join the two Danes In Los Angeles. The high p o in t of the th re e weeks he spent In C a lifo rn ia , r e s t l e s s and depressed by what he considered F rie d a 's d e fe c tio n , was a t r i p to Santa Barbara and Lompoc to see the t o t a l e c lip s e of the sun on September 9. A d e s c rip tio n w ritte n some years l a t e r by one of the tr a v e le r s In d ic a te s how the group had been moved by the sig h t of ! one of Lawrence's f a v o r ite and re c u rrin g Images: Something looked through our eyes Into the deep c e n tre of the night sky, where a g re a t black d isk burned w ith hidden su n flre lik e the h e a rt of a g re a t flow er, and suddenly the g re a t flower opened and shot fo rth co u n tle ss p e ta ls of f i r e th a t streamed and spread and f i l l e d the whole sky and the e a r th , and we who were on e a rth trembled In u t t e r s t i l l n e s s from sheer wonder.52 But C a lifo rn ia had not enough of I n t e r e s t , and by the end of September Lawrence and Kal Ootzsche, whom he had persuaded to accompany him, were working t h e i r way down the rugged west co ast of Mexico - - " g r i l l i n g 1 ' in the sun of Navajoa. (p. 333) The Journey was a p p a llin g , p a r tic u l a r l y fo r a f r a i l and a i l i n g man; on one occasion, they tra v e le d by muleback fo r nine hours from the r a ilr o a d s ta t i o n to v i s i t the s i l v e r mine of a Swiss s e t t l e r — "through s te p p e -lik e sandy land with low brush , . . dry as an oven and as h o t." (p. 337) Lawrence, as was custom a ry , was a l l the while working; during t h i s t r i p I t was on a re v is io n of Miss S k in n e r's book about pioneering days In w estern A u s tra lia . The novel he produced was a curious work, re v e a lin g in i t s "preoccupation with death, the dark gods, sexual malevolence" the Mexican In flu e n c e .53 By the time GBtzsche and Lawrence reached Mexico, th e l a t t e r was In a s t a t e of mental as w ell as physical agony. In a l e t t e r to M errlld, dated October 25, 1923# Kal w rote: "I am avoiding L. as much as p o ssib le a t p re se n t, because, con sid erin g a l l th in g s, he Is r e a lly Insane when he Is as now"5^ In le s s than a month, the two of them were abandon- ; lng Mexico. They s a ile d on the Toledo from Veracruz, and on November 25 Lawrence was w ritin g from Cuba: "Two days i here — am already sick of ship — mixed German Spanish Danish English — a nearly empty b o a t ."55 That experience | provided the m a te ria l f o r The F lying F is h , th a t fragment of an un finish ed novel he wrote a f t e r h is th ir d t r i p , which may have been instrum ental In Katherine Anne P o r t e r 's d e c isio n to w rite The Ship of P o o ls. Back In England, he was re u n ite d with Prleda and i Immediately s e t about try in g to persuade Murry, the i : C a r s w e l l s , a n d o t h e r f r i e n d s t o g o b a c k t o N e w M e x i c o o r I 1 to Mexico with him to e s ta b lis h R a n a n l m . 5 6 Murry had understandable doubts about the success of such an e n te r p r is e and was appalled by Lawrence's now obvious obsession with death: He ta lk ed about Death In such a way I could not understand, try in g In p a r ti c u l a r to convince me th a t Life was a form or m an ifestatio n of Death, not Death of L ife, as I believed and b e lie v e . What we had to do, he s a id , was s h i f t from the Llfe-mode Into the Death-mode, and to do t h i s Mexico was neoessary. . . . (pp. 106-07) | Nothing came of the Rananlm p ro je c t; I t blew up a t a j d is a s tro u s supper p arty a t the Cafe Royal In London given , b y t h e L a w r e n c e s f o r M u r r y , C a t h e r i n e a n d D o n a l d C a r s w e l l , M a r y C a n n a n , D o r o t h y B r e t t , M a r k O e r t l e r , a n d K o t e l l a n s k y . U n d e r t h e I n f l u e n c e o f L a w r e n c e ' s p e r s o n a l i t y a n d I n o r d i n a t e a m o u n t s o f l i q u o r a n d w i n e , a l l e x c e p t M a r y C a n n o n I n d i c a t e d t h e i r w i l l i n g n e s s t o g o . B u t w h e n t h e h a n g o v e r s w o r e o f f , D o r o t h y B r e t t — t h e H o n . D o r o t h y B r e t t , a s L a w r e n c e w a s p l e a s e d t o e m p h a s i z e — w a s t h e o n l y o n e w h o a c c o m p a n i e d t h e s e a r c h e r s o n t h e r e t u r n t r i p . T h e y a r r i v e d I n S a n t a P e o n M a r c h 2 1 , 1 9 2 4 , a n d t o o k o f f f o r K i o w a R a n c h , w h i c h M a b e l h a d g i v e n t o P r l e d a . ( I n r e t u r n , P r l e d a g a v e h e r t h e m a n u s c r i p t o f S o n s a n d L o v e r s . ) I n s p i t e o f t h e w o r k a n d t h e t i m e I n v o l v e d I n g e t t i n g t h e p l a c e I n s h a p e — h i s a n d P r l e d a * s c a b i n , D o r o t h y B r e t t ' s c a b i n , a n d t h e c a b i n f o r t h e v i s i t o r s w h o a r r i v e d I n s i z a b l e n u m b e r s , t h e s p r i n g a n d s u m m e r w e r e | a m a z i n g l y p r o d u c t i v e p e r i o d s f o r L a w r e n c e . H e w r o t e S t . M a w r , " T h e P r i n c e s s , " " T h e W o m a n W h o R o d e A w a y , " a n u m b e r o f t h e e s s a y s t h a t a p p e a r e d I n M o r n i n g s I n M e x i c o , t h e e p i l o g u e f o r M o v e m e n t s I n E u r o p e a n H i s t o r y . T h e n , t o o , b e g a n t h e a c t i v e s t r u g g l e w i t h d e a t h t h a t w a s t o l a s t f o r t h e n e x t s i x y e a r s . D o r o t h y B r e t t h a s w r i t t e n a n a c c o u n t o f t h a t b e g i n n i n g : Y o u s u d d e n l y s p i t . Y o u c o n s t a n t l y s p i t , s o t h e r e I s n o t h i n g n e w I n t h a t ; b u t t h i s t i m e a b r i g h t s p l a s h o f r e d b l o o d c o m e s w i t h I t , w h i c h I s n e w . Y o u c a s t a l o o k o f c o n s t e r n a t i o n a t F r i e d a : s h e l o o k s f l a b b e r g a s t e d — w h i l e I p r e t e n d n o t t o s e e h e r a t a l l . 57 T h e n e x t d a y , a f t e r F r i e d a h a d c a l l e d t h e d o c t o r , h e t u r n e d o n h e r Ml n a w i l d f u r y , " a n d p i c k i n g u p t h e i r o n r i n g t h a t s e r v e d f o r a n e g g - c u p h u r l e d I t a t h e r h e a d . ( P . 133) T o a v o i d a n o t h e r h a r s h w i n t e r l i k e t h e o n e t h e L a w r e n c e s h a d s p e n t I n t h e m o u n t a i n s w i t h t h e D a n i s h p a i n t e r s , t o g e t t h e m a t e r i a l h e n e e d e d t o r e v i s e t h e b o o k s e t a s i d e s i n c e C h a p a l a a n d p e r h a p s t o f i n d t h e p e r f e c t s e t t i n g f o r R a n a n l m , w h i c h w a s b e g i n n i n g t o I n t e r e s t h i m a g a i n , L a w r e n c e a n d F r i e d a a n d D o r o t h y B r e t t h e a d e d s o u t h — f i r s t t o M e x i c o C i t y a n d t h e n t o O a x a c a , o n e o f t h e m o s t I n d i a n M e x i c a n c i t i e s , i n t h e s u b - t r o p i c s . T h e b e a u t y o f t h e p l a c e , t h e s e n s e o f d e a t h i n l i f e , t h e s t r a n g e n e s s o f I n d i a n s I n e x o t i c c o s t u m e s s o r e m o v e d f r o m t h e t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y t h a t m a n y o f t h e m c o n f u s e d L a w r e n c e w i t h " t h e f a i r G o d , " c a l l i n g a f t e r h i m o n t h e s t r e e t : " C r l s t o , C r l s t o " — a l l h a v e b e e n r e c o r d e d I n M o r n i n g s i n M e x i c o , I n p a s s a g e s o f T h e P l u m e d S e r p e n t a n d T h e F l y i n g F i s h . T h e t e r r o r o f t h a t t i m e h a s a l s o b e e n r e c o r d e d b y F r i e d a i n " M o t I . B u t t h e W i n d . . . " D o r o t h y B r e t t , w h o d i s t r a c t e d P rleda by h er s p ln s te r - c u r a te r e la tio n s h ip with Lawrence, was e v i c t e d .58 The Lawrences moved Into the house of an Anglican p r i e s t , Padre Edward A. R ickards, j i hoping fo r peace In which he could work. But they worried I c c o n s ta n tly , sh arin g the uneasiness of o th e r Anglos about the re v o lu tio n loose In the country and the v u lnerable railw ay which was t h e i r only lin k with home and the world o u ts id e . Lawrence, who had been s u ffe rin g from colds and lung tro u b le since t h e i r a r r i v a l in Mexico City in October, became sic k w ith m alaria. Even the indom itable F rieda was frig h te n e d . She c a lle d a n a tiv e d o cto r, who "scared a t having anything to do w ith a fo re ig n e r . . . d i d n 't c o m e . "59 Lawrence, who was much more i l l than she thought, f e l t he would d ie : "You’l l bury me in th i s country h e re ," he would say grim ly. "No, no," I laughed, " I t ' s such an ugly cemetery, don’t you th in k of i t . " (p. 1^ 9 ) F rie d a , who had come to f e e l In Oaxaca th a t "the g re a t gain of the war Is a new re In c o rp o ra tio n of death Into our l i v e s ," (p. 1^ 9 ) was shocked by the nearness of I ts presence. Thanks to the English and American mine- owners and eng ineers who helped them, she managed to get I him back to the c a p it a l . There the blow f e l l : 109 O n e m o r n i n g I h a d g o n e o u t a n d w h e n I c a m e b a c k t h e a n a l y s t d o c t o r w a s t h e r e a n d s a i d , r a t h e r b r u t a l l y , w h e n I c a m e I n t o L a w r e n c e ' s r o o m : " M r* L a w r e n c e h a s t u b e r c u l o s i s . " A n d L a w r e n c e l o o k e d i a t m e w i t h s u c h u n f o r g e t t a b l e e y e s . ( p . 1 5 1 ) i T h e s e c r e t L a w r e n c e h a d b e e n h i d i n g f r o m h i m s e l f a l l ! t h e y e a r s s i n c e N o t t i n g h a m h a d f i n a l l y b e e n r e v e a l e d . T h e ; \ d o c t o r t o l d P r l e d a t h a t h e h a d " a y e a r o r t w o a t m o s t , 1 ’ p r o v i d i n g s h e c o u l d g e t h i m t o t h e r a n c h . I m m i g r a t i o n j i o f f i c i a l s " m a d e a l l t h e d i f f i c u l t i e s I n t h e u g l i e s t f a s h i o n " ( p . 151) t o p r e v e n t t h e s i c k m a n ' s e n t e r i n g t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s . B u t w i t h t h e h e l p o f A m e r i c a n E m b a s s y o f f i c i a l s I n M e x i c o C i t y , h e w a s f i n a l l y a b l e t o c r o s s t h e i b o r d e r a t t h e e n d o f M a r c h . A t t h e r a n c h h e b e g a n t o j ; w r i t e a g a i n . H e w r o t e D a v i d , a p l a y , a n d r e v i s e d t h e ! m a n u s c r i p t o f T h e P l u m e d S e r p e n t . S i x w e e k s l a t e r h e w r o t e t o a f r i e n d : I a m a b o u t m y n o r m a l s e l f a g a i n — b u t s h a l l n e v e r f o r g i v e M e x i c o , e s p e c i a l l y O a x a c a , f o r h a v i n g d o n e m e I n . I s h u d d e r e v e n w h e n I l o o k a t t h e l i t t l e M S . y o u g a v e m e , a n d I t h i n k o f t h a t b e a s t l y S a n t o D o m i n g o c h u r c h , w i t h I t s a w f u l p r i e s t s a n d t h e b a c k y a r d w i t h a w e l l - f u l l o f b a b y s ' b o n e s . Q u o t h t h e r a v e n " N e v e r m o r e . " B u t t h i s N e v e r m o r e i s a t h a n k f u l , c h e e r f u l o b l r r u p , l i k e a g a y b l a c k b i r d . N e v e r m o r e n e e d I l o o k o n M e x i c o — b u t e s p e c i a l l y O a x a c a . — Y e t m y Q u e t z a l c o a t l n o v e l l i e s c e a r e r t o m y h e a r t t h a n a n y o t h e r w o r k o f mine .6 0 D e s p i t e h i s g l o o m y v i e w o f t h e e x p e r i e n c e , M e x i c o h a d ; ' I c o n t r i b u t e d m u c h t o L a w r e n c e t h e m a n a s w e l l a s t o 110 Lawrence the w r i t e r . The P lying F is h , the unfinished novel he d ic ta te d to Frieda on the Journey from Oaxaca, re v e a ls something of what had happened to him, David i Cavltch says of th a t In D. H. Lawrence and the New World: j i i The work shows a c u rre n t of p leasu re flowing back ! In to Lawrence, a f t e r he threw o ff h is burden of sex and the Irre c o n c ila b le c o n f lic t s th a t i t symbolized f o r him. He had cut h is psychic lo s s e s , and h is soul rose buoyantly with a new s e l f - l o v e . 6 l i Mexico enabled Lawrence, f i n a l l y , to come to terms with d eath . No longer was I t an Incestuous bride regarded with lo v e -lo a th in g : In ste a d , as such f i n a l g re a t poems as "Bavarian G entians” and "The Ship of Death” suggest. I t was a voyage to o b liv io n a f t e r which soul and body find i peace In a "new d a w n . ”62 A fter h is death Frieda described th a t s e re n ity of s p i r i t he had achieved In a l e t t e r to Mabel Dodge Luhan, chiding h er f o r having put down only i the "sicknesses" and the "meannesses." During Lawrence's l a s t y e a rs , h is w ife sa id : He was so given over; the courage and the fa cin g I t . Yet never denying the splendour of l i f e and wanting to liv e and yet seeing death coming n e a re r and looking I t s t r a i g h t In the eye. Is such a m iracle of human g re a tn e s s . I stand amazed. . . ,& 3 Mexico had made h is s p i r i t whole. i At the same tim e, I t deepened and enrlohed h is a r t , I providing new myths and modes fo r fa m ilia r themes. I ll enabling him to open new paths fo r w r ite r s In te re s te d In " a r t speech." In Lawrence of the American c o n tin e n t, L. D. Clark says, the w r i t e r ’s genius was "at I t s peak," i most p a r ti c u l a r ly h is 'tmcanny s k i l l In sy n th e siz in g form ; and s e tt i n g and symbol." According to C lark, the w ritin g s I j of th a t p erio d , f i c t i o n and n o n -flc tlo n , express f u lly "the power to e s ta b lis h between h is c h a ra c te rs and a por- i i tlo n of the world the s u b tle bond which could c lo th e a c o n tin en t in the dark glow of m y sticism ."6* * Some of the works of the New Mexico period only suggest th a t power, p r in c ip a lly S t . Mawr and "The P rin c e ss." Both the novel and the sh o rt sto ry achieve ; d i s t i n c t i o n from the powerful use of symbols and the i ; pervasive f e e lin g of death In l i f e and l i f e in death. Both have as a p rin c ip a l theme the c o n tra s t between the ’waste land ' of modern, mechanized " c iv i l iz a t i o n " and I ts un-people and the "liv in g " world of n a tu re , with a l l I ts beauty and t e r r o r , whose In h a b ita n ts are f u lly a liv e because they liv e with d ea th . They are bound to I t and | to each o th e r not by "a stran g e v ib ra tio n of the n erves, . but of the b l o o d . "^5 The r e l a t i v e l y simple p lo ts give no r e a l i s t i c ln d l- < c a tio n of the s t o r i e s . S t. Mawr concerns a young American| e x p a tr ia te , Lou W itt, who Is u n s a ti s f a c to r il y m arried to a young A u stralian p s e u d o - a r tis t, Rico — S ir Henry C arrington. Her mother, a c le v e r and handsome woman with a yearning f o r "real" men, although she had never met any : (p. 13), I n i t i a t e s a c r i s i s when she a r r iv e s In London with Phoenix, a Mexican-American Indian war v eteran , and \ a couple of h o rses. Lou rid e s with h er, and seein g S t. Mawr a t the s ta b le s one day decides to buy him fo r Rico. The red-g old horse has fa sc in a te d her: Looming lik e some god out of the darkness was the head of th a t horse, with the wide, t e r r i b l e ques tio n in g eyes. And she f e l t th a t i t forbade her to be h er ordinary commonplace s e l f . (p. 2 3 ) She loves the horse because he possesses "the mys te r y " : "That g re a t burning l i f e In him, which Is never dead." (pp. 70-71) When Rico and some of h is frie n d s plan to geld S t. Mawr, who has Injured him, Lou and her mother | e n te r Into a conspiracy with Phoenix and Lewis, a Welsh groom, to take the horse to America. The m ission accom p lis h e d , Mrs. W itt - - who has been obsessed with a d e s ire to be a t l e a s t p o s itiv e In her death (p. 1 3 6) — c o lla p se s, S t. Mawr, having regained an I n t e r e s t In mares, Is l e f t with Lewis a t the ranch In Texas. The o th ers go on to New Mexico, where Lou fin d s h e r s e lf In m y stical communion ; w ith a ranch high In the mountains. She has found In the j landscape: ' 113 , . . s o m e t h i n g b i g , b i g g e r t h a n m e n , b i g g e r t h a n p e o p l e , b i g g e r t h a n r e l i g i o n . I t ' s s o m e t h i n g t o d o w i t h w i l d A m e r i c a . A n d I t ' s s o m e t h i n g t o d o w i t h m e . I t ' s a m i s s i o n , I f y o u l i k e . I a m I m b e c i l e e n o u g h f o r t h a t . B u t I t ' s m y m i s s i o n t o j k e e p m y s e l f f o r t h e s p i r i t t h a t i s w i l d , a n d h a s | I w a i t e d s o l o n g h e r e : e v e n w a i t e d f o r s u c h a s m e . i j N o w I ' v e c o m e . N o w I ' m h e r e . ( p . 2 2 1 ) 1 L a w r e n c e h a s c l o t h e d t h e s k e l e t a l p l o t w i t h I m a g e s a n d s y m b o l s t h a t s u g g e s t i v e l y a n d s e n s u o u s l y c o n j u r e u p ! t h e t w o w o r l d s — t h e m a r v e l o u s w o r l d o f n a t u r e a n d t h e m o r i b u n d c i v i l i z e d w o r l d o f m e c h a n i c a l m a n . H e p a i n t s a d e v a s t a t i n g p i c t u r e o f p o s t - w a r s o c i e t y , w i t h I t s d e a d r e l i g i o n , d e a d p o l i t i c a l s t r u c t u r e s , d e a d s o c i a l a n d s e x u a l r e l a t i o n s h i p s , d e a d s o u l s — " r i d d e n b y t h i s p s e u d o - h a n d s o m e g h o u l o f o u t w a r d l o y a l t y , I n w a r d t r e a c h e r y * I n a g a m e o f b e t r a y a l , b e t r a y a l , b e t r a y a l . T h e l a s t o f t h e g o d s o f o u r e r a , J u d a s s u p r e m e ! " ( p . 1 0 0 ) F . R . L e a v i a h a s c a l l e d I t a " d r a m a t i c p o e m , " w i t h t h e w a s t e l a n d f o r I t s t h e m e . T h e h e r o i n e o f " T h e P r i n c e s s " a l s o s e e s t h a t w i l d A m e r i c a h a s s o m e t h i n g t o o f f e r , b u t u n l i k e L o u W i t t s h e h a s n o r e s p e c t f o r " t h e m y s t e r y . " D e l u d e d I n t o b e l i e v i n g h e r s e l f I n v u l n e r a b l e a n d i n v i o l a b l e , s h e w a n t e d t o p e e r i o v e r t h e m o u n t a i n s , " I n t o t h e i r s e c r e t h e a r t . " ^ 7 T h e d a u g h t e r o f a d e a d N e w E n g l a n d h e i r e s s a n d " a f a s c i n a t i n g • | s p e c t r e " o f a S c o t t i s h f a t h e r , s h e h a d b e e n b r o u g h t u p t o ! 114 b eliev e th a t the "demons" of a l l but the two of them were "dwindled and v u lg a r." (p. 475) She had been everywhere, seen ev ery th in g , but only from the o u ts id e . Lawrence said th a t she knew everything with h er mind: "the blasphemous j Impertinence of her own s t e r i l i t y . " (p. 477) | The s p i r i t u a l corpse, now t o t a l l y mad, d ies when "The ; I P rincess" Is th irty -s e v e n . Impelled by some sense of llfe ^ i : she and Miss Cummins, h is companion, go to New Mexico fo r i a v acatio n . The only man a t the Rancho del Cerro Oordo who I n te r e s ts her Is Domingo Romero. Former owner of the ranch now reduced to the s ta tu s of h ired hand, he s t i l l has the spark of "a fin e demon" In h is eye; and the sense - th a t death was close to him made him "possible" to h er. (p. 485) The p rin ce ss persuades him to take her up Into the mountains to see the la rg e r w ild animals and to look Into "the Inner chaos of the R ockies." But as they rid e through the "grey and dead" landscape (Miss Cummins has retu rn ed to the ranch) she becomes frig h te n e d , overwhelmed by the " a n t l - l l f e " of t h e i r d e s tin a tio n . A fter supper, she Is touched by the marvel of her surroundings. Mars ; looks lik e "the b ia sin g eye" of a mountain lio n . She approaches the p o in t a t which ego could die to make pos- I | s lb le the b i r t h of s e l f : ". . . she h e r s e lf was deep, deep! below In a p i t of shadow. In the Intense sile n c e she 1X5 seemed to hear the spruce f o r e s t c ra c k lin g with e le c t r i c i t y and c o ld ." (p. 5 0 2 ) The new l i f e of fe e lin g almost occurs. During the n ig h t, she asks Romero to warm h er. He l i e s w ith h er, pantin g " lik e an animal" with d e a ire : "And she was given over to th is th in g ." (p. 504) But she Is too f a r gone in hollowness to allow her soul to submit — the p ric e Lawrence s e ts fo r tru e selfho od. She re se n ts Romero's "curious Joy and p rid e ," and when dawn comes crushes him when he asks i f she had not lik e d the n ig h t. "Hot r e a l l y , " she said c o ld ly : "Why? Did you?" (p. 505) Maddened by her response, he swears th a t he w ill make her lik e sex. He throws her c lo th e s away, and during the next th re e days t r i e s to expend h is d e s ire fo r her In "a sombre, v io le n t ex cess." (p. 508) She has no power f o r emotion - - not even h a te : "P ersonally he hardly e x is te d ." (p. 509) Then sile n c e came between them: "They were two people who had died. He did not touch her any more." (p. 5 0 9 ) She Is rescued by F o rest Service men, who shoot Romero and carry h er back to the ranch. She reco v ers, looks "a v irg in i n t a c t ," and ev en tu ally m arries an old ' man. She c a r r i e s with h er, however, the e f f e c t s of th a t ordeal during which her soul had almost stru g g led Into l i f e : madness shows In her eyes and re v e a ls I t s e l f In the b iz a rre acoount of what she c a lle d her "accident In the m ountains, when a man went mad and shot my horse from under me, and my guide had to shoot him dead." (p. 5 1 2 ) The New Mexican f i c t i o n , lik e the Mexican s t o r ie s th a t follow , is b u i l t on the qu est of the so ul; i t Is not merely the qu est of women fo r a "daemon lo v e r." But the symbols and the mythic m a te ria ls In both "The P rincess" and S t . Mawr come too clo se to conscious a r t to be as su c c e ssfu l as the b est of the Mexican e f f o r t s . Among the l a t t e r , the r e a l f a il u r e Is the b r u ta l and d is tu rb in g "None of T hat." Although the s it u a t io n and c h a ra c te rs o f f e r a r r e s tin g p o s s i b i l i t i e s , Lawrence seemed more In te re s te d In them as a means of v enting h is fury a g a in st Mabel Dodge Luhan than as l i t e r a r y ch a llen g e s. The sto ry opens In Venice, where the n a r ra to r meets a lonely and impoverished Mexican p a in te r who t e l l s him th a t Cuesta, the famous b u l l f i g h te r , has also r e t i r e d th e re on the fo rtu n e l e f t to him by an American woman. C uesta, who now resem bles a yellow whale, had been more than a brute In h is day — when he played with the b u ll and played with death . The n a r ra to r remembers how Cuesta had mesmerized everyone who saw him In the rin g because: "he played with death as I f i t were a k i t t e n , so quick, quick as a s t a r and calm as a flow er, and a l l the time laughing a t d e a th ." (p. 704) He was then the tru e Aztec p r le s t- k ln g . And although women were "mad"about him, he liv ed with two humble Indian women: "All the o th ers he i spat a t , and spoke of them with t e r r i b l e obscene language."! (p. 704) E th el Cane, a r ic h , blonde American divorcee — "naive and f a ls e - in n o c e n t, but f u l l of l i f e " (p. 7 0 5 ) ( i . e . soul death) — had discovered him In Mexico, where she was searching fo r "a remarkable and epoch-making husband." (p. 706) A tru e waste land corpse d e sp ite her s u b s ta n tia l ph ysical a ttr a c ti v e n e s s , she had l i t t l e success among the debauched, but s t i l l v i t a l Mexicans. The re v o lu tio n a rie s refu sed to n o tic e h er; the g e n e ra ls, who In v ited her to become t h e i r m is tre s s , were re p e lle d by her in s is te n c e th a t: "I'm having none of t h a t ." (p. 707) Incapable of r e a l l i f e , she wanted only "the l i f e of the Im agination." The n a r r a to r , her co n stan t companion, d esc rib es the c o n te st between the b u l l - f l g h t e r of the fle s h and the lady of the Im agination. E t h e l 's mind t e l l s her th a t he has something she h a s n 't . The Issu e, then, Is to dem onstrate th a t her Imagination Is stro n g er than her body; she determ ines to take him as a lo v er "as an lmagl- j n ativ e a c t." (p. 718) Mind lo s e s. Cuesta In v ite s her to | h is house In the Guadalupe Road; and In h is bedroom, he hands her over to h a lf a dozen of h is b u ll- r ln g gang "with orders not to b ru ise h e r." (p. 719) E thel d ies a few days l a t e r w ithout a l t e r i n g her w il l, leaving Cuesta h a lf of her fo rtu n e . But Cuesta, as Is obvious from the gross l i f e he leads In Venice, has a lso been destroyed; he has exchanged fo r the nothingness of Mammon c i v i l i z a t i o n the s ta r- flo w e r s e l f th a t played with death and laughed a t I t . U n fo rtu n ately , more v in d ic tiv e n e ss than genius comes through In the p re se n ta tio n — as happens In o th e r s t o r ie s when Lawrence uses the m a te ria ls to even up scores with frie n d s and fo e s. N either E th el nor Cuesta are developed Im aginatively enough to engage the fe e lin g s of the re a d e r. The p oint of view Is clumsy; the n a r ra to r Is no Marlow, so th a t n e ith e r symbols nor p lo t convince. Even the s ty le Is weakened by the technique; the u su ally e f f e c tiv e c o l l o q u ia l range Is s tra in e d by repeated e f f o r t s to make I t seem as though the n a r ra to r Is a c tu a lly speaking with the p a in te r : "Do you understand me a t a l l ? Or does i t sound fo o lis h ? " (p. 704) "Did you never hear of I t? . . . Her name was E thel Cane. Did you never hear of her?" (p. 705) t " B u t h o w d o y o u k n o w h e h a n d e d h e r o v e r l i k e t h a t ? " i (p. 721) | I n d r a m a t i c c o n t r a s t , t h e m o s t I m p o r t a n t w o r k s o f 119 t h e M e x i c a n p e r i o d h a d m u c h t o o f f e r o t h e r w r i t e r s b o t h I n t r e a t m e n t a n d c o n t e n t . D . H . L a w r e n c e I n t r o d u c e d a n e w m o d e o f d e a l i n g w i t h j r e a l i t y I n h t s f o u r t r a v e l b o o k s , I n c l u d i n g M o r n i n g s I n j ! M e x i c o . J u l i a n M o y n a h a n c r e d i t s h i m w i t h h a v i n g I n v e n t e d [ a n e w f o r m — " a s e m l - f I c t l o n a l g e n r e w h i c h h e [ L a w r e n c e ] a l m o s t m i g h t b e s a i d t o h a v e I n v e n t e d . " 6 8 M o r n i n g s I n M e x i c o I s a t t h e o p p o s i t e p o l e f r o m T e r r y ' s G u i d e a n d o t h e r s I n t h a t l i n e . A n y o n e s e e k i n g I n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t g e o g r a p h y , c l i m a t e , a c c o m m o d a t i o n s , t r a n s p o r t a t i o n , m o n e t a r y v a l u e s , h i s t o r y , a n d c u s t o m a r y t o u r i s t c o n c e r n s w o u l d d o w e l l t o l o o k e l s e w h e r e . W h a t c o n c e r n s L a w r e n c e I s " t h e s p i r i t o f p l a c e , " f i n d i n g t h e d a e m o n I n t h e l a n d s c a p e a n d i n t h e a c t i o n s a n d a t t i t u d e s o f p e o p l e . I t c o m p a r e s w i t h c o n v e n t i o n a l t r a v e l w r i t i n g s i n p r e c i s e l y j t h e s a m e w a y t h a t G r a h a m G r e e n e ' s A n o t h e r M e x i c o d o e s . O r t h a t O s c a r L e w i s ' s l a t e r b o o k s a b o u t M e x i c o c o m p a r e w i t h c o n v e n t i o n a l s o c i o l o g i c a l s t u d i e s . I n t h e m L e w i s m o v e s , w i t h b r i l l i a n t s u c c e s s , I n a n a r r o w i n g g y r e , f r o m t 1 t h e c a r e f u l l y d o c u m e n t e d a n d e x h a u s t i v e l y c h r o n i c l e d g e n e r a l s t u d y o f a v i l l a g e t o t h e h i g h l y I m p r e s s i o n i s t i c p s y c h o l o g l c a l - p o e t l c C h i l d r e n o f S a n c h e s a n d P e d r o M a r t i n e z . T h e s t u d y o f a p e o p l e , h e h a s d e m o n s t r a t e d , j m a y b e s t b e a c c o m p l i s h e d n o t t h r o u g h s t a t i s t i c s a n d 120 c o lle c tiv e c a ta lo g , but through ex p lo rin g the fe e lin g s and a t t i t u d e s of a sin g le family or a sin g le In d iv id u al. So Lawrence In d ica te s h is In te n tio n of fin d in g macro- i i In micro- In the opening essay, "Corasmln and the Parrots,'^ i ■ which b e g in s : I One says Mexico: one means, a f t e r a l l , one l i t t l e town away South In the R epublic: and In th is l i t t l e town, one r a th e r crumbly adobe house b u i l t around two sid e s of a garden p a tio : and of th is house, one spot on the deep, shady verandah facin g Inwards to the t r e e s , where th ere are an onyx ta b le and th ree ro c k in g -c h a irs and one l i t t l e wooden c h a ir , a pot with c a rn a tio n s, and a person with a p en .& 9 Prom th a t vantage, he watches the f a t l i t t l e dog, the w h is tlin g screeching p a r r o t, and R osalino, sweeping the p a tio with h is twig broom and covering him self "with the ! cloud of h is own o b s c u rity ." (pp. 5-7) What Lawrence sees and hears and fe e ls are not merely the s ig h ts and sounds i and sce n ts of Mexico p re se n t, but I t s u ltim ate beginnings according to Aztec cosmogony - - beyond the world of th is sun back to the world of th a t e a r l i e r Sun, which began when humming-birds sparked In the darkness, (p. 1 0 ) j In the next th re e essay s, he d eals with o th er re v e a l- i lng asp ects of Mexico. "The Walk to Huayapa" explores i ! "the psychology of Sunday" and the sen satio n of tim e le ss- , n ess. In "The Mozo" he analyzes the s p i r i t u a l and c u ltu - ; r a l chasm between the "white monkey" and the "re a l" Indian^ 121 who has s trip p e d away consciousness of a l l but the In sta n t moment: "fo rev er keen with a r a z o r - 1 Ike edge of o b liv io n , lik e the k n ife of s a c r i f i c e . " (p. 59) In the l a s t of the i ! essays about Mexico, "Market Day," he fin d s th a t the \ i s ig n ific a n c e of th a t hebdomadal occasion has l i t t l e to do ! with buying and s e l l i n g and tu rn in g a p r o f i t ; in ste a d , : with the "moment of co n tact and c e n trlp e d a l flow ." (p. 95) i ! ! Lawrence recognizes th a t In the c o lo rfu l weekly r i t u a l which has drawn Indians from a l l the v illa g e s In the area to the c e n te r of Oaxaca th ere Is no Mammon I n te r e s t: Only th a t which Is u t t e r l y In ta n g ib le , m atters. The c o n ta c t, the spark of exchange. That which can never be fasten ed upon, fo re v er gone, fo re v e r coming, never to be d e ta in e d : the spark of c o n ta c t. (p. 9§5 Lawrence's lack of I n te r e s t In what may be c a lle d i c irc u m s ta n tia l d ata Is n o tic e a b le In a l l h is w ritin g , nowhere more so than Mornings In Mexico. The only "fa c ts" th a t In te re s te d him were n a tu ra l f a c ts since they alone were, as Emerson had h eld , symbols of s p i r i t u a l f a c t s . Rebecca West commented on th a t q u a lity of h is mind i | In d e sc rib in g h er f i r s t meeting with him In Florence in j 1921, when she and Norman Douglas c a lle d on Lawrence who had a rriv e d only th a t afterno on and had s e t t l e d Into "a sm all, mean room" In a h o te l along the Am o.?0 They found j him already tapping away a t the ty p e w rite r Am y Lowell had , 122 g i v e n h i m . W h e n D o u g l a s , w h o w a s o n e o f t h e I m p o r t a n t c l a s s i c a l s c h o l a r s o f E u r o p e , a s k e d I r o n i c a l l y i f h e w a s w r i t i n g a n a r t i c l e a b o u t t h e p r e s e n t s t a t e o f F l o r e n c e , L a w r e n c e r e s p o n d e d " y e s " w i t h g r e a t s e r i o u s n e s s : T h i s w a s f a i n t l y e m b a r r a s s i n g b e c a u s e o n t h e d o o r s t e p D o u g l a s h a d d e s c r i b e d h o w o n a r r i v i n g I n a t o w n L a w r e n c e u s e d t o g o s t r a i g h t f r o m t h e r a i l w a y s t a t i o n t o h i s h o t e l a n d i m m e d i a t e l y s i t d o w n a n d h a m m e r o u t a r t i c l e s a b o u t t h e p l a c e , v e h e m e n t l y a n d e x h a u s t i v e l y d e s c r i b i n g t h e t e m p e r a m e n t o f t h e p e o p l e , ( p . 6 2 ) H o w e v e r , D . H . L a w r e n c e ' s t h e o r i e s a b o u t t h e s u p e r i o r i t y o f " b l o o d - " t o " m l n d - c o n s c l o u s n e s s " s e e m l e s s e x t r a v a g a n t w h e n c o n s i d e r e d I n t h e l i g h t o f h i s e x t r a - o r d i n a r y a c h i e v e m e n t s I n d e s c r i b i n g t h e m e a n i n g o f p e o p l e j a n d p l a c e s . D e s p i t e h i s c a s u a l r e g a r d f o r r e s e a r c h , e v e n ; a c c u r a c y I n s p e l l i n g n a m e s p r o p e r l y , t h e f o u r e s s a y s i n M o r n i n g s w h i c h a r e d i r e c t l y c o n c e r n e d w i t h M e x i c o a n d w h i c h h e w r o t e d u r i n g a s i n g l e w e e k I n O a x a c a , a l l c o n t a i n w h a t E l i o t F a y h a s c a l l e d I n L o r e n z o I n S e a r c h o f t h e S u n : " a p e n e t r a t i n g I n s i g h t I n t o t h e h i d d e n m e a n i n g s o f t h i n g s " a s w e l l a s " g r e a t s e n s i t i v e n e s s t o b e a u t y , T h e y a n d i t h e t h r e e a b o u t N e w M e x i c o c a n b e r e g a r d e d a s a b a s i c a n d ! n e c e s s a r y g u i d e t o I n d i a n c h a r a c t e r . E v e n s o c a r e f u l a i ; s t u d e n t o f I n d i a n c u l t u r e a s R u t h B e n e d i c t h a s s a i d : " N o i i o n e h a s c o n v e y e d t h i s q u a l i t y o f P u e b l o d a n c i n g m o r e p r e c i s e l y t h a n D . H . L a w r e n c e . B y t h i s M i s s B e n e d i c t 123 means the non-Dionyslan q u a lity s in c e , as she p o in ts out, the dancers are not bent on experiencing e c s ta s y , but on Id e n tify in g with nature so thoroughly " th a t the fo rc es of n atu re w ill swing to t h e i r purposes." (p. 8 5 ) To I l l u s t r a t e her p o in t, she quotes Lawrence's d e s c rip tio n of one of the dances he had w itnessed In New Mexico. The essays are important fo r another reason: they a lso c o n s titu te a basic and necessary guide to h is two most Important works of f i c t i o n about Mexico: "The Woman Who Rode Away" and The Plumed S erp e n t. Clark says th a t they are r e la te d to the l a t t e r p a r ti c u la r ly in "an I n t i mate and re v ealin g " manner: They helped Lawrence to understand what he was doing In the novel, as they help us, by re p e a tin g In essay form h is o b servatio ns of the Indian mind and the Mexican land th a t are woven in to the f i c t i o n ; by r e s t a t i n g h is p eren n ial b e lie f s about the l i f e c y c le , both the p a r t i c u l a r and the u n i v e r s a l, In r e la t i o n to Aztec cosmogony; by exposi tory c l a r i f i c a t i o n of the symbolism and s tru c tu re of the n o v e l,73 Foremost among those b e lie f s so c a re fu lly s ta te d In MomIngs In Mexico is the b e lie f th a t r e a l knowledge Is not to be found In science or r a ti o n a l in q u iry , but In the unconscious knowledge of the blood. Thus, he p re fe rs to accept the Aztec Idea of Suns — worlds su ccessiv ely c reated and destroyed — than the "long and wearing t w i s t ing of the rope of Time and E v o l u t i o n . "7** He b eliev es 124 th a t one must liv e with death In order to be f u lly a liv e , and b e lie v e s In the "rich n ess of the fle sh " (p. 49) com- ; , pared to the poverty of s p i r i t and w i l l . Lawrence values < the Importance of the " In s ta n t moment" (p. 5 9 ) balanced i ! between the e t e r n i t i e s of o rig in and of ending; he holds j "g en eric, non -Individual" experience more valuable than In d iv id u a l, Is o la te d experience, (p. 107) He c o n tra s ts mockingly a r e li g i o n th a t b ring s about the union of s p i r i t and m a tte r, of Ood and Ood's c r e a tio n , with "dead" C h ris t i a n i t y , which enhances among men a separaten ess and Is o la tio n (p. 1 1 7) — a liv in g god as opposed to the " l i t t l e gods of the machine." (p. 153) Im p ortan tly, In the essays he advances h is b e l i e f th a t: "Man, l i t t l e man, with h is consciousness and h is w i l l , must submit to the g re a t orlgln-pow ers of l i f e , and j conquer them." (p. 173. I t a l i c s added.) Only then w ill man grow and trium ph, fo r "only the heroes snatch manhood, l i t t l e by l i t t l e , from the strange den of the Cosmos." (p. 173) That th e re Is a r e a l need fo r a guide to The Plumed Serpent Is obvious from the e x tra o rd in a ry range o f c r l t l - i c a l responses to I t . I t has become so fash io n ab le to d erid e I t th a t even c r i t i c s who have not read I t or who have read I t only c a su a lly dism iss I t out of hand. For 125 example, Tony Slade says In hla re cen t study th a t In The Plumed Serpent the varying stra n d s of Lawrence's e a r l i e r work were brought to g eth er "with most unhappy r e s u l t s . "75 (U nfortunately f o r c r i t i c a l r e l i a b i l i t y , however, a few i ; sentences along he speaks of K ate 's r e la tio n s h ip with | "Don Ramon C lp rla n o .") ! Many o th ers agree about the r e s u l t s . Leavls, who has : defended Lawrence longer and more vigorously than perhaps any o th e r major c r i t i c as "one of the major n o v e lis ts of the English t r a d i t i o n , "7^ has c a lle d The Plumed Serpent "a bad book and a r e g r e tta b le perform ance." (p. 30) I t has been c r i t i c i z e d from a l l vantages. E. M. F o rs te r re je c te d I t because the preaching overwhelmed the poetry In a "tiresom e" and d id a c tic way, holding th a t the book "b lares out e x p l i c i t l y what the snowdrops In The White Peacock shyly h in ted a t . "77 Edward Weston, the photogra- 1 pher, who met Lawrence In Mexico and took the widely d is tr ib u te d photographic study of him, said I t was "a book on Mexico which could have been w ritte n only by a neu ro tic ■ Anglo-Saxon."7® C a v ltc h 's g en e rally laudatory study f a u l t s I t on the grounds th a t the novel was "Impelled I la rg e ly by h is own f u t i l e e f f o r t to f a l s i f y sexual fe a rs th a t he could no longer bear to acknowledge."79 J u lia n ; Moynahan, who Is c e r ta in ly In the pro-Lawrence camp, , deplored I t f o r p o l i t i c a l reasons: Lawrence's Idea of an Aztec r e s to r a tio n engineered by persons seeking to re p la ce the c o u n try 's s o c ia l re v o lu tio n by a co nservative d ic ta to r s h ip Is nothing sh o rt of In sp ire d . Yet h is pretense th a t t h i s outcome Is anything but a human catastro p h e makes the h e a rt slnk.oO i | In a d d itio n to being c r i t i c i z e d on moral, sexual, i ! p o l i t i c a l , and r e lig io u s grounds, I t has also been con demned as an a r t i s t i c f a i l u r e . Aldous Huxley, one of h is c lo s e s t frie n d s and g r e a te s t adm irers, said th a t the f i r s t tw o -th ird s of the book were " a r t i s t i c a l l y p e rfe c t — as stro n g , as b e a u tif u l, as d e lic a te ly s e n s itiv e and a liv e as anything could be ."®1 However, he f e l t th a t the f i n a l th i r d was weakened d is a s tro u s ly by Lawrence's personal i doubts, which caused him to r a is e the tone ever more s t r i d e n t l y : "The a r t i s t i c f a i l u r e is evidence of some Inner u n c e rta in ty of co n v ic tio n . . . . Art is convincing only when I t sp rin g s from c o n v ic tio n ." (p. 2 6 0 ) William York T in d all has spoken with two voices about I t . In D. H. Lawrence and Susan His Cow, he d esc rib es I t as "one of the b e s t trav elo g u es of our day." (p. 2 0 1 ) i \ However, In th a t book he d e rid e s the notion th a t Lawrence ! ; was capable of producing a f i r s t r a t e novel a t a l l : "Theory and purpose prevented Lawrence not only from seeing what th e re was to see but from c re a tin g a r e a l i t y Independent of the a c tu a l." (pp. 202-03) But In hla In tro d u c tio n to the Vintage e d itio n of The Plumed S erp en t, he c a ll a I t a "wonderful" and "magical" book — "a g re a t metaphor fo r a fe e lin g about r e a l i t y ."®2 Some c r l t l c a have been kind er. Graham Hough, f o r example, has noted th a t Lawrence was working In I t with sure a r t i s t r y on the " c e n tra l re v e la tio n of h is l i f e . " The t r a n s i t i o n from re p o rtin g to prophecy, according to Hough, Is " re a l p ro g re ss, accountable and accounted fo r w ith in the n a r ra tiv e f r a m e w o r k . "®3 In The Dark Night of the Body, the most d e ta ile d study, C lark says th a t the novel has not been understood and ap p reciated because "most" of I t s c r i t i c s "know so l i t t l e about Indian and Mexican so ciety th a t they are a t a g re a t lo ss when d ea lin g w ith an Im aginative extension of those s o c i e t i e s ." (Preface 111) That Is a curious notion sin ce he says l a t e r th a t c r i t i c s must draw d i s t i n c t i o n s . I f t h e i r c r itic is m Is to be v a lid , between the r e lig io n advanced In a work of a r t as r e li g i o n and as I t embraces the c h a ra c te r s , e v e n ts, and s e t t i n g of the novel, (p. 6 ) N everth eless, I t Is tru e th a t the most c o n s is te n tly favorable comments accorded the book have been made by persons Intim ately acquainted with Mexico. C arlton B eals, author and le c t u r e r , who was d ir e c to r of the English Preparatory I n s t i t u t e of Mexico of the U niv ersity of Mexico and e d i t o r of Mexican Folkways, Is such a c r i t i c . Although he "d etested him p ersonally" and considered th a t Lawrence "never understood" Mexico, he regarded i t as "a remarkably I n tu itiv e book, with m agnificent d e s c r ip tio n s , and a weird In sig h t in to many m atters th a t Lawrence sensed r a th e r than u n d e r s t o o d . " ^ What Lawrence d i d in both Mornings In Mexico and The Plumed S erp e n t, Beals s a id , was . . . to shoot the skyrockets of h is morbid fancy over Mexico, and In the long glimmer of showering sparks he caught remarkable glimpses of the land, glimpses so stra n g e , so f a n ta s ti c and d is to r te d , y et sometimes so grandiosely tru e as to make one wonder a t the e e rie q u a lity of h is genius, (p. 229) Antonio C astro Leal, noted Mexican w r ite r , has c a lle d The Plumed Serpent one of Lawrence’s "best" novels, In which he p e n e tra te d "to the underlying elem ents o f(th e Mexlcarj) p e r s o n a l i t y A n d Dr. Manuel Oamlo, the d i s tin g u ish e d a n th ro p o lo g is t and a rc h a e o lo g is t, d ir e c to r of Mexico’s I n s t l t u t o In d lg e n lsta In ter-am erlca n o , said th a t d e s p ite I t s lack of c e r ta in r e a l i t i e s of Mexico, "Lawrence’s g re a t i n t e l l e c t , and h is ab le p e n e tra tio n of Id eas, s i t u a t i o n , and words make of t h i s book a highly i n t e r e s ti n g and o r ig in a l novel. The two persons who were a b so lu te ly c e r ta in of the m erits of The Plumed Serpent were Lawrence, h im self, and F ried a. In a l e t t e r to Martin Seeker, h is p rin c ip a l English p u b lis h e r, Lawrence said In a d iscu ssio n of the g alley proofs of " Q u e tz a lc o a tl," as he c a lle d the book: ”1 s t i l l say, t h i s Is the most Important of a l l my novels. But I hate sending I t out Into the world. . . ."87 ^nd sev eral years a f t e r Lawrence's death , F rieda said In answer to her so n -in -la w 's p ra is e of Sons and Lovers: "No, no, you must read The Plumed S erp e n t. All of Lawrence Is In th a t book." 88 Undoubtedly, th e re was much of Lawrence. In Mexico he had come c lo s e r to death than ever before u n t i l the f i n a l encounter In 1930. He had liv e d more Intim ately with v iolen ce and t e r r o r ; he had known g re a te r f e a r . In w ritin g the th re e v ersio n s of the novel he had made a j more d e lib e r a te e f f o r t than a t any time In h is c a re e r to fin d symbolic expression fo r h is th e o rie s and b e l i e f s . S u p e rfic ia lly the book follow s a r e l a t i v e l y simple argument. Kate L e s lie , the widow of an I r i s h re v o lu tio n - 1 ary le a d e r, r e a l iz e s th a t she has reached the m ld-polnt In h er l i f e . Her s p i r i t ’’consumed" In the waste land of i Europe, she has come to Mexico — "the high p la te a u of d e a t h — In search of s a lv a tio n . "Qlve me the mystery and l e t the world liv e again f o r me!" (p. 11^) Is her 130 c ry , the cry of h er so u l. In Mexico she encounters two le a d e rs, Ramon Carrasco and Oeneral C lprlano Vledma, men who s t r i k e her as being face to face w ith "the l i f e Is s u e ." (p. 70) In trig u e d by | t h e i r e f f o r t to re g en era te decadent Mexico by r e s to r in g i the an c ie n t r e li g i o n , r e - e s t a b l i s h in g " liv in g " gods In place of the c r u c if ie d C h ris t, she Joins them In t h e i r e f f o r t s and consents to become one o f t h e i r pantheon, h e r s e l f . She m arries Don C lprlano, and a f t e r much s tr u g g lin g and doubt, decides to remain In Mexico with him. That, In b a ld e st term s, Is "what happens." The r e a l a c tio n In Lawrence's book Is q u ite d i f f e r e n t. In an unconventional and r ic h ly symbolic manner, he p re se n ts the Journey of the human soul In search of " li f e " — moving through the r ig o r s and anguishes and d eath - j experience of the underworld to flow er again In the form o f a morning s t a r . 9° in I t s own way the book Is essen t i a l l y as r e li g i o u s a work as The Divine Comedy, and, since I t Is a novel, a r a d ic a l dep artu re from conventional f i c t i o n a l methods. A reason f o r c r i t i c a l p e rp le x ity , perhaps, Is th a t Lawrence was attem p tin g f i n a l ly to carry out a theory of c h a r a c te r is a tio n th a t had preoccupied him i beginning In 1 9 1 7, when he sa id : ] 131 Philosophy I n te r e s ts me most now — not novels or s t o r i e s . I fin d people u ltim a te ly boring: and you c a n 't have f i c t i o n without people. So f i c t i o n does n o t, a t the bottom, I n te r e s t me any more, 1 am weary of humanity and human th in g s . One la happy In the thoughts only th a t transcend hum anity.91 j He was working toward a tran scendent c h a ra c te r iz e - I tlo n ; In place of the old e g o t i s t i c s e l f of mental con scio u sn ess, he was seeking to p re se n t the primary human ! psyche given shape and name - - "the complex plasm, which q u iv e rs, sense conscious, In co n tac t with the circumam b ie n t cosmos."^2 He had t r i e d t h i s f i r s t in The Rainbow. In defending th a t work to Edward O arn ett, who had r e s e r v atio n s about the n o v e l's c h a r a c te r iz a tio n , Lawrence said : I d o n 't care so much about what the woman f e e ls ! — in the ordinary usage of the word. That pre- sumes an ego to f e e l w ith. I only care about what the woman - - what she IS — inhumanly, p h y s io lo g ic a lly , m a te ria lly - - according to the use of the word. . , . You m usn't look In my novel f o r the old s ta b le ego — of the c h a ra c te r. There Is another ego, according to whose a c tio n the In dividual is u nrecognisable, and passes through, as I t were, a l lo t r o p l c s t a t e s which I t needs a deeper sense than any we've been used to e x e rc is e , to d iscover are the s ta te s of the same sin g le r a d ic a lly unchanged elem ent, . . .93 He became more absorbed with th a t concept during succeed ing y e a rs, valuing w rite r s f o r t h e i r a b i l i t y to discover those a l l o tr o p l c s t a t e s . M e lv ille , he s a id , " in s tln c - | tlv e ly hated human l i f e : "And never was a man so passion - j a te ly f i l l e d with the sense of v astn ess and mystery of 132 l i f e which Is non-human. "9** ! Lawrence, th u s, Is not concerned as moat w rlte ra are i with the a p e c lflc a of tim e, p la c e , surface r e a l i t i e s , the Mrs. Brown-ness of c h a ra c te r s . As Cavltch has pointed 1 I out: "Lawrence . . . lik e Paul Morel, try in g to p a in t the I shimmering protoplasm w ith in a le a f , subdues dim ensional i fe a tu re s In o rd er to accentuate hla c h a r a c t e r s ’ uncon- | sclous v i t a l i t y ."95 Obviously, th ere are g re a t problems in w ritin g an extended work — or any a t a l l , fo r th a t m atter — without giving some a tt e n t i o n to the veins and form of the le a f , to time and space dim ensions. As a r e s u l t , Lawrence u su ally moves from one kind of n a r ra tiv e to ano ther, o fte n — as Graham Hough has pointed out — "with sheer wanton c a re le s sn e ss or d e lib e r a te defiance of the o rd l- ; nary c a n o n s."96 His novels u su ally begin on the le v e l of the c o n c re te , the v i s i b l e , the palpable (sometimes as earthbound as the Thomas Mann of Buddenbrooks, whom Lawrence adm ired). Prom th a t they soar to the a b s t r a c t, ; the I n v is ib le , the Impalpable. As Hough n o tes: . . . th e re Is a ls o a c o n s is te n t movement In h is w ritin g from n atu ralism to symbol, from a c tu a li t y I to myth; and I f the re a d e r is ready to swallow | h is work, he must be ready to swallow both. (p. 1 5) What he counted on to make the t r a n s i t i o n p o s s ib le , I 133 p la u s ib le , was symbol and myth. Since they appeal on both le v e ls , they could be used as v e h icles to ca rry the re a d e r from the phy sical fa m ilia r to the psychic unVcnown. The Plumed S erp en t, more than any o th er of the extended n ovels, follow s th a t p a tte r n , j The f i r s t ch ap ters are In ten sely s p e c if ic , p a r a l l e l - I lng c lo s e ly the a c tu a l experiences of Lawrence, h im self, 1 The b u l l f i g h t , which Kate a tte n d s with her American cousin and h is frie n d , was the very b u l l f i g h t th a t Lawrence and Frieda had attended with W itter Bynner and W illard Johnson, Lawrence's re a c tio n became K a te 's , d is g u s t f o r the spec ta c le and lo a th in g f o r the fre n z ie d crowd. The tea party In T la c o lu la , described in Chapter Two, Is a c ru e lly ! p re c ise account of the Lawrence's v i s i t to the house of Mrs. Z ella N u tta ll (Mrs, N orris of the book), with re p re - j s e n ta tlv e s of the B r itis h and American colonies mourning those " b e tte r" days, when fo re ig n e rs were tre a te d as i f they owned Mexico — as was p re tty much the case. But even In those most s p e c ific c h a p te rs, a c tio n I a lso moves on the le v e l of K ate 's non-ego fe e lin g s , and I the symbols are stro n g v e h ic le s fo r the subsequent Jour- i ■ ney toward f u l l r e a l i z a t i o n of th a t "non-human" goal: I | from f a ls e to r e a l l i f e . The b u l l f i g h t , an European custom Imposed on Mexican c u ltu r e . Is one symbol of the i i ! . . . . \ 13U waste land and I ta degenerate In h a b ita n ts who have debased and destroyed n a tu re . Revolted by the butchery, the gored horse reeking of blood and bowels, and sickened by her cousin and the o th er s p e c ta to rs who persuaded themselves i they were "seeing LIFE," (p. 17) Kate f l e e s . So Is she i | re p e lle d by th a t o th er symbolic event — the te a p a rty . Here are gathered the hollow men: the a p p a llin g Judge i i B urlap, with h is h atre d and arrogance; even Mrs. N o rris, the b est and most a liv e of the group, wears "an expression of tomb-1Ike mockery." (p. 3 2 ) The only two a t the p arty who are tr u ly a liv e are Don Ramon and General Vledma (Don C lp rlan o ). Kate Is I a tt r a c te d by them, but she Is f e a r f u l of the underworld i | through which she must tr a v e l I f she Is to be reborn. She i i fin d s Mexico — the underworld — hard to bear: "with I t s g re a t u n d e r -d rtft of squalor and heavy r e p t l l e - l l k e e v i l . " (p. 26) She t e l l s Don C lprlano, who Is to be h er guide, th a t almost ev ery th in g about Mexico oppresses her. C h iefly , of course, lik e o th ers of the waste land she is a f ra id of the presence of d eath , which must be acknowledged | before her new l i f e can begin. Don Ramon t e l l s h er, when i i I she speaks about the Mexicans' obsession with d eath: " I t | j Is q u ite t r u e . Whenever a Mexican c r ie s out V lvaj he ends j up with Mueral" (p. Mo) 135 When Kate r e p li e s th a t she does not want to say "Viva la M uertel" he answers, te a sin g : "But when you are a r e a l Mexican . . . " (p. 41) The exchange has major s ig n ific a n c e . Before Kate Is reborn, she has become a " re a l" Mexican, under the banner ! of El Rey M uerte. And the r e lig io u s re v iv a l Don Ramon and Don C lprlano e f f e c t does f i l l the c e n te rle s s eyes of | the p easan ts — which Kate said she so feared — with the spark of the "Morning S ta r." But f u l l awareness of what was Involved does not come to Kate u n t i l the book nears the clim ax, when she Is confronted w ith the need to choose between d e a th - ln - ll f e or l i f e - l n - d e a t h : the death of h er h a lf-s o u l among the i 0 7 "grim alkins' of London or the death of her ego In sub m ittin g h er soul to C lp rla n o 's: Now, must she admit th a t the Individu al was an il lu s i o n and a f a l s i f i c a t i o n ? There was no such anim al. Except in the mechanical world. In the world o f machines, the In d iv id u al machine is I n e f f e c tu a l. The in d iv id u a l, lik e the p e rfe c t being, cannot e x i s t , In the v ivid world. W e are a l l fragm ents. And a t the b e s t, h alv es. The only whole th in g Is the Morning S ta r. Which can r i s e between two: or between many. (p. 426) The tu rn in g point In the t r a n s i t i o n from n a t u r a l i s t i c j | to psychic-sym bolic comes In the th ir d c h a p te r, "F o rtie th j ! B irth d a y ,” when Kate becomes aware of her co n d itio n . The ( i f i r s t h a lf of her l i f e was over: "The b rig h t page with , 136 I t s flow ers and I t s love and I t s s ta tio n s of the Cross ended with a grave. Now she must tu rn over, and the page was black, black and empty." (p. 52) Lonely, her c h ild re n ! ] I liv in g c h ie fly with t h e i r f a th e r , she Is both a t t r a c t e d j ] I and re p e lle d by Mexico. Mexico was "a ponderous, down- j i j p re ssin g weight upon the s p i r i t : the g re a t fo ld s of the dragon of the A ztecs, the dragon of the T oltecs winding i around one and weighing down the so u l." (p. 51) Europe was worse — a nada. And she fin d s a glimmer of hope In a news a r t i c l e e n t i t l e d , "The Gods of A ntiquity Return to M exico,1 ' (p. 58) The a r t i c l e described an Incident th a t had occurred a t the lake of Sayula (Lake Chapala, beside which Lawrence i had w ritte n the f i r s t v ersio n of the book In May and June of 1 9 2 3): "the scene Is l i t t l e changed sin ce the days of Montezuma, when the n a tiv e s of the lake worshipped the s p i r i t of the w a te rs." (p. 58) A man of g re a t s ta tu r e had ris e n naked from the lak e, appro priated the white peasant s u i t being washed by one of the women and com fo rte d them by saying: "Your gods are ready to re tu r n to 1 j you. Q u etzalco atl and T la lo c , the old gods, are minded ! I to come back to you." (p. 59) The next evening the . | woman's husband had been accosted by a s tra n g e r and asked j to follow him. He was taken to a dark room. In which four 137 d w a r f s w a s h e d h i m I n a h u g e g o l d b a s i n , g i v e n n e w c l o t h i n g , p a r t i c u l a r l y a w h i t e s e r a p e w i t h b a r s o f b l u e a n d b l a c k , w i t h " f l o w e r s l i k e s t a r s a t t h e c e n t e r , " a n d s o m e s l i v e r . T h e n h e w a s d i s m i s s e d , a f t e r b e i n g I n s t r u c t e d : " A n d w h e n t h e y a s k y o u , w h e r e d i d y o u g e t y o u r b l a n k e t ? a n s w e r t h a t Q u e t z a l o o a t l I s y o u n g a g a i n . " ( p . 6 0 ) T h e " n e w s " a r t i c l e c o n c l u d e d w i t h t h e n o t e t h a t D o n R a m o n C a r r a s c o , w h o s e h a c i e n d a w a s n e a r b y , w a s g o i n g t o S a y u l a t o i n v e s t i g a t e t h e m y s t e r y . Kate responds to the "strange beam of wonder and m ystery." (p. 60) She decides to leave f o r Sayula, aware t h a t : Y e m u s t b e b o r n a g a i n . O u t o f t h e f i g h t w i t h t h e o c t o p u s o f l i f e , t h e d r a g o n o f d e g e n e r a t e o r o f I n c o m p l e t e e x i s t e n c e , o n e m u s t w i n t h i s s o f t b l o o m o f b e i n g , t h a t I s d a m a g e d b y a t o u c h , ( p . 6 2 ) H e r e t h e b o o k b e g i n s t o f o l l o w I t s s t r a n g e p a t h I n t o t h e r e a l m o f p s y c h i c r e b i r t h , l e a v i n g b e h i n d m o r e a n d m o r e s w i f t l y t h e d a y l i g h t o f r e a l i s t i c r e p r e s e n t a t i o n , p r o c e e d i n g b y I n d i r e c t i o n a n d r i t u a l o n t h e J o u r n e y o f d e a t h . Q u e t z a l c o a t l , t h e P l u m e d o r P r e c i o u s S e r p e n t , w a s o n e o f t h e f a v o r i t e d e i t i e s o f a n c i e n t M e x i c o . A l s o c a l l e d E h e c a t l ( W i n d G o d ; L o r d o f t h e H o u s e o f D a w n , V e n u s ) a n d X o l o t l ( M o n s t e r ) , h e w a s t h e g o d o f l i f e a n d f e r t i l i t y , I n v e n t o r o f a g r i c u l t u r a l p r o c e s s e s , o r i g i n a t o r o f t h e 138 c a l e n d a r , a n d p a t r o n o f m a n y I n d u s t r i e s a s w e l l a s o f p r i e s t l y r i t u a l s . A s X o l o t l , h e h a d s e a r c h e d t h e a b o d e o f t h e u n d e r g r o u n d g o d s f o r b o n e s o f p r e v i o u s c r e a t u r e s i n o r d e r t o r e c r e a t e m a n . H e b r o u g h t c o r n t o m e n , t u r n i n g : h i m s e l f I n t o a n a n t i n o r d e r t o s e i z e I t f r o m t h e a n t s w h o I h a d h i d d e n I t . T h u s , a s F r e d e r i c k P e t e r s o n h a s p o i n t e d o u t I n A n c i e n t M e x i c o , " m e n w e r e s o n s o f Q u e t z a l c o a t l a n d o w e d t h e i r m a i n s u s t e n a n c e t o h i m . " 9 8 A l t h o u g h v a r y i n g m y t h s a n d l e g e n d s e x i s t a b o u t Q u e t z a l c o a t l — t h e g o d - k l n g w h o w a s b e t r a y e d I n t o g e t t i n g d r u n k a n d l y i n g w i t h h i s s i s t e r — i n a l l v e r s i o n s h i s h e a r t u l t i m a t e l y r i s e s t o h e a v e n , w h e r e I t i s t r a n s f o r m e d | I n t o t h e p l a n e t V e n u s . A n I m p o r t a n t p a r t o f t h e m y t h s I n v o l v e s h i s d e s c e n t I n t o t h e l a n d o f t h e d e a d . I n h i s J o u r n e y t h r o u g h t h e u n d e r w o r l d , t h e g o d w h o I s u s u a l l y c o n c e i v e d o f a s W i n d o r S p i r i t b e c o m e s m a t t e r : X o l o t l , s y m b o l i z e d b y a d o g . I n t h i s r e d e m p t i o n m y t h I n w h i c h Q u e t z a l c o a t l I s t h e s o u l , t h e p l a n e t s e r v e s a s t h e c e n t e r o f t h e d r a m a , a s L a u r e t t e S f e j o u r n f c e m p h a s i z e s I n B u r n i n g W a t e r . V e n u s ! j f i r s t a p p e a r s I n t h e w e s t e r n s k y ; t h e n I t d i s a p p e a r s a n d j ! r e m a i n s h i d d e n " u n d e r g r o u n d " f o r s e v e r a l d a y s a f t e r w h i c h , i ; I t r e a p p e a r s I n t h e e a s t e r n s k y — b r i g h t e r t h a n e v e r - - \ I ' I r e j o i n e d w i t h t h e s u n . , 139 K a t e a c c o m p a n i e s Q u e t z a l c o a t l - - D o n R a m o n — o n h i s I n c a r n a t e J o u r n e y t h r o u g h t h e l a n d o f t h e d e a d . S h e I s i ' g u i d e d b y D o n C l p r l a n o , t h e " l i v i n g H u l t z l l o p o c h t l l " j J i ( H u m m i n g b i r d o f t h e L e f t ) , a n d s h e I s e v e n t u a l l y a p o t h e - j I o s l z e d w i t h t h e m . H u l t z l l o p o c h t l l w a s t h e s p e c i a l g o d o f j t h e A z t e c s , t o w h o m — I n h i s r o l e a s w a r g o d — t h e y h a d i b u i l t t h e i r g r e a t e s t t e m p l e s a n d o f f e r e d h u m a n s a c r i f i c e s : h e a r t s r i p p e d p a l p i t a t i n g f r o m t h e b r e a s t s o f a s m a n y a s 2 0 , 0 0 0 v i c t i m s i n a s i n g l e d a y . L i k e Q u e t z a l c o a t l , w h o w a s b o t h L o r d o f t h e S k y a n d L o r d o f t h e U n d e r w o r l d , H u l t z l l o p o c h t l l w a s a l s o a d u a l g o d o f l i g h t a n d d a r k : d e s t r u c t i v e a n d c r e a t i v e , h e p u t t o f l i g h t t h e n i g h t g o d s s o t h a t t h e y w o u l d n o t v a n q u i s h t h e s u n a n d h e p r e s i d e d o v e r b a t t l e f i e l d s l a u g h t e r . 9 9 I I t w a s n o t e a s y f o r K a t e t o o p t t o m a k e t h e J o u r n e y t o w a r d r e b i r t h t h r o u g h t h e u n d e r w o r l d o f M e x i c o . S h e f e a r e d t h e l o s s o f " t h e f r e e s o a r i n g s e n s e o f l i b e r t y , " f o r D o n R a m o n h a d w a r n e d h e r : T h e r e I s n o s u c h t h i n g a s l i b e r t y . T h e g r e a t e s t l i b e r a t o r s a r e u s u a l l y s l a v e s o f a n I d e a . T h e f r e e s t p e o p l e a r e s l a v e s t o c o n v e n t i o n a n d p u b l i c o p i n i o n , a n d m o r e s t i l l , s l a v e s t o t h e I n d u s t r i a l m a c h i n e . T h e r e I s n o s u c h t h i n g a s l i b e r t y . Y o u c a n o n l y c h a n g e o n e s o r t o f d o m i n a t i o n f o r a n o t h e r . A l l we can do Is to choose our m aster, (p. 77) I \ N o n e t h e l e s s , s h e s e n d s h e r c o u s i n b a c k t o A m e r i c a a n d g o e s j t o S a y u l a , a t t h e u r g i n g o f D o n R a m o n a n d D o n C l p r l a n o . All of the subsequent episodes leading to K ate 's d e c isio n to become a "re a l" Mexican and to her s p i r i t u a l r e b ir th fu n c tio n on two p lanes. She has a f i r s t glimmer of hope on the boat t r i p to the v illa g e , when she sees the "morn ing s ta r " In the eyes of the boatman and f e e ls fo r the f i r s t time th a t she had "met the mystery of the n a tiv e s ." (p. 101) Early doubts about C lprlano and Ramon are d i s p e lle d during the b r i e f stay a t the h o te l before she moves Into the Casa de la s C uentas. When the h o te l manager sc o ffs a t the Idea of the re v iv a l of the old gods, she r e a l iz e s th a t he, lik e her cousin Owen Rhys and V l l l l e r s and her o th e r "mechanical co n n ectio n s," Is merely "wldder- sh ln s, unwinding the sen satio n s o f d is in te g r a tio n and a n t l - l l f e . " (p. 1 1 3) Kate takes another ste p out of doubt and fe a r one evening In the p la z a . A fter watching "the f l f l s and the fla p p e rs and the m otor-car people from town" (p. 1 2 5) — symbols of the waste land th a t has been Imported to Mexico — Kate hears the f i r s t hymn of Q u e tz a lc o a tl. Caught up In the rhythms of the drum, responding unconsciously, she takes p a r t In the g re a t wheeling dance of the In d ian s. Her fin g e rs are linked In the sacredness of touch with those of a man she cannot see. "Her personal eyes had gone b lin d , h is face was the face of dark heaven": and 141 she f e e l s h e r s e lf . . . merged In d e s ire beyond d e s ir e , to be gone | In the body beyond the Individualism of the body, with the spark of co n tac t lin g e rin g lik e a morn- | ing s t a r between her and the man, her woman's ? r e a t e r s e l f and the g re a te r s e l f of the man. p. 143) | The co n tac t is not easy to s u s ta in . She Is a l t e r n a te ly re p e lle d by and a t t r a c te d to her fam ily of s e r v an ts, to whom she seems "a s o r t of goddess." (p. 1 5 4) And she Is a t f i r s t h o r r if ie d when C lprlano proposes m arriage, f e e lin g th a t th e re can be no co n tact between w h ite- and brown-skinned people, (p. 207) But during "The F i r s t Rain" she begins to understand the p o s s i b i li t y : i tn th e course of a r i t u a l conducted by Ramon; he urges i i ! the peasants to get In touch with the g re a t serpent a t t h e 1 h e a rt of the e a r th , to sink t h e i r ro o ts deep so i t can ' i send l i f e in to them " lik e sap In the young m aize." (p. 217) As the Q u etz alco atl movement grows In s tre n g th , the hazards and the enemies of the Journey m u ltip ly . Among the l a t t e r are Don Ramon's c h ild re n , who despise t h e i r f a t h e r 's r o le ; h is w ife, Dcfta C a rlo ta , who worships him | and f ig h ts him b i t t e r l y to "save" h is soul f o r C h rist; the Bishop of the West, whose Knights of C ortes have th rea te n ed revenge f o r the a tta c k on the C atholic Church, i | In the second p a rt of the book the strang eness and vlo- j ] lence of the r i t u a l i s t i c episodes In crease. The Men of I [ . . . . . . i Q u etzalco atl answer the p r i e s t s who have closed the church by sta g in g an auto da fe one Sunday morning. They ca rry the "Dead C h rist" and the o th er s ta tu e s out of the church to the lake; th e re they a re heaped on a canoa, taken to an islan d in the c e n te r of the la k e , and burned In a g re a t f i r e . The young p r i e s t f lin g s h is s to le and cassock on the flames and dons the h at and serape th a t has become the uniform of the movement. "Sayula was empty of God, and, a t h e a r t, they [th e people] were g la d ." (p. 3 1 5) Soon a f t e r , Don Ramon's hacienda is a tta c k e d . While he s tru g g le s with one of the b a n d its, Kate se iz e s h is dropped rev o lv er and shoots one of the would-be m urderers. Her soul " g u tte r s ” — alm ost dead. (p. 337) Proof of the new soul beginning to emerge Is th a t when C lprlano comes to see h e r, she can "understand" marrying him; he Is no longer merely a Mexican g e n e ra l, but "the an cien t god- d e v ll of the Pan male." (p. 3*H) She and the liv in g H u ltz llo p o c h tll consummate th is new "understanding" a f t e r a rid e on the lake In a darkened h o te l room, where: She fused Into a molten unconsciousness, her w i l l , her very s e l f gone, leavin g her lying In molten l i f e , lik e a lake of s t i l l f i r e , unconscious of ev ery th in g save the e t e r n a l t t y of the f i r e In which she was gone. (p. 3 5 1) As they leave the p lace , sa lu te d by the s o ld ie rs and o f f i c e r s , "she knew what I t was to be a goddess In the old 143 s t y l e , sa lu te d by the r e a l f i r e In men's eyes, not by t h e i r l i p s . " (p. 359) The t r i b u t e In t h e i r eyes Is not to the p h y sical woman h e r s e lf , but to "the In a c c e ssib le , voluptu ous mystery of man's p h y sical consummation," (p. 3 5 2) [ That evening In an e la b o ra te r i t u a l In the rain-w et j garden of the hacienda, Ramon-Quetzalcoatl m arries i ; C lp rla n o -H u ttz llo p o c h tll and K ate-M allntzi, Soon a f t e r , I In a r ic h ly colored ceremony In the church opened to honor Q u e tz a lc o a tl, Ramon d e c la re s him self to be a god, a t the a l t a r where a wooden s ta tu e has been In s ta lle d — a naked man, holding a golden eag le on h is r i g h t arm and whose heavy l e f t leg Is wrapped around by a serpent of glimmer ing g old . The ceremony la in te rru p te d by C arlo ta, who makes a f i n a l e f f o r t to stop the 'blasphemy." She then c o lla p se s and d ies s h o rtly a f t e r . The apoth eo sis of H lu tz ilo p o c h tll takes place a t n ig h t, some time l a t e r , with f i r e s and chanting of hymns. C lprlano p re sid e s over and p a r ti c i p a t e s In the Judgment and execution of the "grey dogs" who conspired to k i l l Ramon. A fter the f a i t h f u l have d eparted , C lprlano asks j j Kate to come Into the church with him, where t h e i r two ! flames "flow to g eth er" before the s ta tu e of Q u e tz a lc o a tl. j j (pp. 420-31) K ate 's f i n a l ego s tru g g le comes a f t e r Ramon's j l I t m arriage to T eresa. At len g th , she makes her subm ission, t e l l s them she w ill s ta y , th a t she d o e s n 't want to go away. Some doubts and fe a rs remain even to the l a s t , but sh iv erin g a l i t t l e she p lead s: "You w on't l e t me go." (p. 487) That is her f i n a l p a rtin g with the waste land. While on one le v e l the novel Is designed to be read as tru e myth, concerned " c e n tra lly w ith the onward adven tu re of the in te g ra l s o u l ," 100 on another I t Is a con scio u sly organized sermon a g a in st mechanism and m a te r ia l ism, a f t e r the manner of C a rly le . Thus, Lawrence was a t once c lin g in g to h is prophetic r o le w hile tak in g p a rt In what Graham Hough has c a lle d "the g re a t European expedi tio n away from the usual tra d e -ro u te s Into the h in te rla n d of co n scio u sn ess ." 101 All of Lawrence's f a v o r ite themes are presented In the book: p o l i t i c s , sex, 'b ro th e rh o o d ,' the sacredness of touch, blood wisdom, death as v i t a l i z i n g fo rc e . The Plumed Serpent Is not a f a s c i s t novel, as Frieda and o th e rs have pointed o u t . 1® ® Lawrence, lik e c u rre n t r e v o lu tio n a r ie s , was only a n eg a tiv ely p o l i t i c a l anim al. He was e s s e n t i a l l y an a n a r c h i s t . 10^ He despised democracy, so cialism , bolshevism , and fascism — the c h ie f p o l i t i c a l forms of h is day — as m a t e r i a l i s t i c h o rro rs th a t only served to encourage the dem ocratic mass, workers and 1U5 c a p i t a l i s t s a lik e , In t h e i r "porcupine" greed and i n e r t i a . 10* * Prom f i r s t to l a s t , he was opposed to govern ments founded on anything but the Idea of " e x tr in s ic e q u a lity and I n t r i n s i c I n e q u a lity ." 10^ Socialism In Mexico he regarded a p a r ti c u l a r dud — "a fa rc e of fa rc e s ; I except very dan g ero u s."10® What Lawrence proposed Instead of the usual s o c ia l compact was th a t men submit themselves to m y stic ally recognized le a d e rs . These n ea r-d lv ln e a r i s t o c r a t s , "men of the sun" would lead t h e i r follo w ers Into "wholeness." By su rren d erin g to an inward r e lig io u s b e l i e f , the fo llow e rs w ill come to belong to"a liv in g , o rg an ic, b e lie v in g ; community,"10? I t Is tru e th a t Lawrence does compliment i b r ie f ly d i c t a t o r s of both r i g h t and l e f t In The Plumed S e rp e n t: he speaks of the "safe q u ie t days of Don j P o rflrlo " (p. 123) and p ra is e s Montes (C alles) who had ! declared the old "dead" church I l l e g a l , (p. 461) However, ; the whole book Is an argument fo r a s t a t e based on r e l i g i ous r e la tio n s h ip s and a lead e r who commands voluntary j subm ission. "The machine d is c ip lin e from the o u tside i | breaks down," he I n s i s t s , (p. 399) Ramon s tr e s s e s In h is i i j most powerful and poetic address to h is fo llo w ers: "W e | | w ill be m asters among men, and lo rd s among men. But lo rd s | of men, and m asters of men we w ill not be. . . . I w ill 146 not command you, nor serve you. . . (p. 196) And he warns them a g a in s t m a t e r i a l i s t i c entrapm ent. Say of nothin g, " I t la mine." (p. 197) Ramon's h o rro r of g aining anything but the moral and s p i r i t u a l r ig h t to show Mexico the way Is so g re a t th a t when C lprlano proposes th a t he become Montes' S ecretary and succeed him as P re s id e n t, Ramon r e a l iz e s th a t | "Clprlano would betray him." (p. 212) He answered: You know I d o n 't want t h a t . I must stand In another world, and a c t In ano ther world. — P o l it i c s must go t h e i r own way, and so c ie ty must do as I t w i l l . Leave me alo n e, C lprlano. I know you want me to be another P o r f lr lo Diaz or something lik e t h a t . But fo r me th a t would be f a i l u r e pure and sim ple, (p. 210) ; He f e l t th a t Montes, with " a l l t h i s s o c la l r e li g i o n ," was i i simply "washing the o u tsid e of the egg, to make I t look 1 c le a n . But I , m yself, I want to get Inside the egg, r ig h t | i In the m iddle, to s t a r t I t growing Into a new b ir d ." (p. 210) He was en v isio n in g what Ursula had experienced a t the conclusion of The Rainbow. She had suddenly become c o n fi dent th a t "the so rd id p eo p le," creeping "h ard -scaled and i ■ sep arate" on the w o rld 's c o rru p tio n , would " c a st o ff t h e i r ' i horny covering of d i s i n te g r a t i o n , th a t new, c le a n , naked i ! i bodies would Issue to a new germ ination, to a new growth, ! I i r i s i n g to the li g h t and the wind and the clean r a in of j 147 h e a v e n . " 10® A ctually, In h is view of the Ideal so ciety — with l ! men clean and proud and working a t a r t and h a n d ic ra fts In j a s p i r i t of reverence — Lawrence suggests some of the p rim itiv e C h ris tia n s or th a t remarkable p r i e s t who accom- i | panled the conquerors - - Fray Bartolome de la s Casas, The liv in g r e la tio n s h ip which would make t h i s r e l l g l - ! | ously o rie n te d u to pia p o ssib le was both a man-woman and a man-man r e la tio n s h ip , the "blood-brotherhood" so im portant In h is l i f e and work. In l i f e he had sought a male oneness with such d iv e rse people as John Middleton Murry^°9 and the Danish p a in te rs in New Mexico. I t Is a dominant theme In most of h is novels leading up to The Plumed S erp e n t, expressed f i r s t In The White Peacock and most Intensely In Women In Love. Murry and o th ers have In s is te d th a t the r e la tio n s h ip Lawrence sought was more r i t u a l i s t i c than homosexual. The Plumed S erp e n t, with I t s emphasis on d u a lity , makes comprehensible Lawrence’s kind of homoerotic Ism. The ap o th eo sis of C lprlano as "the liv in g H u ltz llo p o c h tll," which comes a f t e r h is m arriage to Kate, Involves physloal as w ell as s p i r i t u a l communion with Ramon. Ramon Induces i through a r i t u a l of touch a Yoga-like tran ce in which j they l i e to g e th e r, naked In " p e rfe c t unconsciousness." 148 (p. 404) And un like U rsula, who f e l t th a t such a r e l a tio n s h ip was merely a p e r v e rs ity , Kate Is p e r fe c tly willing: to accept I t : "She knew th a t without Ramon, C lprlano was | J u s t a n I n s t r u m e n t , a n d n o t u l t i m a t e l y I n t e r e s t i n g t o i ; ; h e r." (p. 447) i Ju s t as the u ltim a te r e la tio n s h ip between man and man goes beyond ordinary hom osexuality, so does the u ltim ate r e la tio n s h ip between man and woman go beyond ordinary h e te r o s e x u a lity . The Plumed Serpent s t r e s s e s . Lawrence believed sex was a means of re so lv in g the c o n f lic t of the "two a n ta g o n is tic consciousnesses" In people: blood- consclousness and m lnd-consclousness.*** I t was the I c ru c ib le in which m atter was fused with s p i r i t ; I t was the death of In d iv id u a lity th a t made p o ssib le the re s u r re c tio n of s e l f . I t was the sensuous underworld through which one; passed to become the Morning S ta r . I t made p o ssib le the m ystical union of a person with the liv in g u n iv erse : I t was "the d i r e c t n o ctu rn a l connection of a man with the sun — the path of the dark su n ."* 1® K a t e ' s J o u r n e y I n M e x i c o i s a l s o a s e x u a l o n e — I n a l l o f t h o s e s e n s e s . W h e n s h e a r r i v e s , s h e I s s t i l l t h e t y p i c a l E u r o p e a n w o m a n : t h e M a t e r M a g n a B l r k l n h a d s o I m is tru ste d . Kate, to o, claim s men "soul and body, sex, meaning, and a l l . " (p. 227) She Is bent on her I n d iv id u a lity , her "womanness." (p. 26) Yet, Kate la w illin g to le a rn . The death of her husband had made her r e a l iz e th a t "human love has I t s lim its " and th a t "her s p i r i t had passed the bounds,” (p. 62) The d iv in e r e la tio n s h ip she u ltim a te ly achieves with C lprlano Is the ne plus u l t r a of Lawrence's sex d o c trin e since I t Is based on her t o t a l acceptance; she allow s him to touch h e r, to lim it her, to claim her w i l l , (p. 482) In exchange fo r abandoning her ego and I n d iv id u a lity , she gains "the g r e a te r sex, th a t could f i l l a l l the world with l u s t r e and which she dared not th in k about, I t s power was so much g r e a te r than h er own w i l l . " (p. 481) In Lawrence1s legends of "bad” women — the s t o r i e s of Oudrun, C a rlo ta , E th el Crane, 'The P r in c e s s ,' Aaron’s w ife - - t h e i r r e f u s a l to follow K ate 's example c o n s titu te s t h e i r m ortal s in . Kate and C lprlano liv e below the su rface of l i f e , In the blood. They are aware th a t "to tr y to know any liv in g being is to try to suck the l i f e out of th a t b e in g ," H 4 They r e j e c t w ill and even d e s ire f o r "the subterranean flow ." (p. 463) They do not seek to know each o th er p e rso n a lly . Alone, Kate was "nothing" to him: "As a woman on h er own, she was re p u ls iv e and even e v i l to him. She was not r e a l t i l l she was r e c i p r o c a l . 1 1 (p. 424) S im ilarly 150 Kate r e j e c t s the C lprlano of ordinary a f f a i r s . Remember ing t a l e s of h is "sw ift c ru e lty " th a t she had heard, the stabbing of Ramon's a s s a u lt e r s , she th in k s only: "What do I care what C lprlano Vledma does or d o e s n 't do?" (p. 431) They know sex as the g re a t u n i f i e r , but they know a lso th a t th e re Is a point beyond which they cannot go. That point Lawrence described c a re fu lly In "A Propos of Lady C h a tte r le y 's Lover": Two r i v e r s of blood are man and w ife, two d i s t i n c t e te r n a l stream s, th a t have the power of touching and communing and so renewing, making new one a n o th er, w ithout any breaking of the su b tle con f in e s , any confusing or commingling. And the p h allu s Is the connecting lin k between the two r i v e r s , th a t e s ta b lis h e s the two streams In a oneness and gives out of t h e i r d u a lity a sin g le c i r c u i t , fo re v e r. And t h i s , t h i s oneness gradu a lly accomplished throughout a lif e - tim e In two- n ess, Is the h ig h est achievement of time o r e t e r n i t y . 115 C lprlano and Kate achieve th a t p e rfe c t " p o la rity " B lrkln dreams of as he and Ursula s i t w aitin g In Sherwood F o rest before t h e i r f i r s t sexual experience — w aiting the "dark knowledge" to give them the "pure mystic n o d a llty of p h y sical being . . . t h i s s t a r eq u ilib riu m which alone Is freedom. f,116 This dualism of "pure o th e rn e s s," which Is found through sex, extends through a l l th in g s , Lawrence b elie v e d , even the seemingly In d iv is ib le . The soul or s e l f Is s in g le , he pointed o u t, "yet w ithin the s e l f which Is 151 s in g le , the p rin c ip le of dualism re ig n s . And then, con sequent upon t h i s p rin c ip le of dual o th e rn e s s , comes the s c i e n t i f i c dualism of p o l a r i t y , "H 7 The dualism of the an cien t Mexican r e lig io n s and even i of n atu re in Mexico obsessed him. H u ltz llo p o c h tll, the i / | god of war, was a ls o the p e r s o n if ic a tio n of the mid-day sun and was the god of flo w ers. The aim o f the Aztec i r e li g i o u s c o lle g e s was H to cause the flow er of the body to bloom.1 ' 11® So the " liv in g H u ltz llo p o c h tll” makes Kate's body flow er and h er blood flame. Nature a lso co n tain s th a t dualism . The landscape Is harsh and frig h te n in g : "In the g re a t see th in g lig h t of the! i lak e, w ith the t e r r i b l e b lu e-rlb b e d mountains of Mexico beyond, she seemed swallowed by some g r i s l y sk eleto n , In the cage of h is death-anatom y." (p. 116) Yet I t Is a lso h e a lin g and m y stic a l. N atu re's changes p a r a lle l changes In the s t a t e s of the o bserv er. Toward the end of the book, f o r In stan c e, Kate fin d s "something cu rio u sly i soothing even In the f u l l , p a le , dove-brown w ater of the | lake" and can "hardly remember now the dry r i g i d p a llo r i of the h e a t, when the whole e a rth seemed to c r e p ita te ! j v ic io u sly with dry malevolence: lik e memory gone dry and ! i s t e r i l e , h e l l i s h . " (p. 467) In a passage remarkably sug- \ i ^ g e s tlv e of "The Snake," Kate sees a "long, dark s o ft rope , 152 l y i n g o v e r a p a l e b o u l d e r , " a n d a s I t e a s e s I t s d a r k l e n g t h I n t o t h e " h i d d e n p l a c e s " o f t h e e a r t h , s h e f e e l s f i "a c e r t a in r e c o n c i l ia t io n between h e r s e lf and I t . " (p. 466) L i k e L a w r e n c e , K a t e s e e s t h e t e r r o r a n d a n t a g o n i s m I n j i ! j n a t u r e , y e t f e e l s I t s s t r a n g e n e s s a n d b e a u t y . G o o d a n d e v i l I n m a n c a n a l s o b e r e c o n c i l e d , i t I s i s u g g e s t e d . S o c a n l o v e a n d l o a t h i n g . M e t a l w i l l g i v e i w a y t o " m e m b r a n e . ” M o t l i f e , b u t d e a t h I s t h e " g r e a t c o n s u m m a t i o n , " t h e u l t i m a t e s u b m i s s i o n t o t h e u n k n o w n . L a w r e n c e a c c e p t e d t h e A z t e c t e a c h i n g t h a t p e o p l e d i d n o t d i e ; t h e y " w o k e f r o m a d r e a m t h e y h a d l i v e d . . . a n d b e c a m e o n c e m o r e s p i r i t s o r g o d s . " 1 2 0 i I n d i a n m y s t i c i s m a l s o h e l p e d K a t e t o r e s o l v e t h e d u a l i s m o f M e x i c o . S h e , l i k e L a w r e n c e , b e l i e v e d t h a t t h e v i c t i m i s h i s o w n v l c t l m l z e r , t h a t e v i l e x i s t s b e c a u s e j i t h e r e i s a b e l i e f I n e v i l . W a k i n g I n t h e n i g h t t o s e e a n 1 a r m u n b o l t i n g h e r d o o r , s h e s u m m o n s h e r s p i r i t : " I a m b e l i e v i n g I n e v i l . I m u s t n ' t b e l i e v e i n e v i l . P a n i c a n d m u r d e r n e v e r s t a r t u n l e s s t h e l e a d i n g p e o p l e l e t s l i p t h e ! ! ! c o n t r o l . " ( p . 1 ^ 9 ) T h e b o d y m u s t c o n t r o l f e a r , w h i c h I s i of the so u l. (p. 115) Her f i r s t moment of f u lf illm e n t i c o m e s a f t e r s h e h a s e x p e r i e n c e d a k i n d o f t e r r o r o f t h e ! t w o m e n s a i l i n g h e r d o w n t h e l a k e t o h e r n e w h o m e . S h e r e a l i z e s t h a t t h e y a r e " h a l f m e n " w i t h a " p o w e r t o d e s t r o y 153 the p u rer th in g ." Yet knowing th a t they would not molest h er "unless she communicated the thought to them," In her ( j soul she c r i e s aloud to the " g re a te r mystery . . . the | s i l e n t l l f e - b r e a t h . M (pp. 116-17) I t s f u lln e s s descends i upon her; then she p artak es communion with them — o f f e r ing the oranges and sandwiches she has brought, and reco g - j n lzln g th a t they have f e l t "the communion of g ra ce." (p. 117) A number of c r i t i c s hold with Mark Spllka th a t Lawrence was not a sym bolist, th a t he was not searching to fin d correspondences f o r the s p i r i t u a l I n f i n i t e . R ather, he sought "m aterial and fo c al ex pressio n s of those vague but powerful fo rc es of n a tu re which occur, q u ite p a te n tly . In tim e ." ! 2 * Yet a l l of Lawrence's works weave t h a t web of correspondences between the worlds of s p i r i t and m atter th a t Is the essence of symbolism, David Cavltch has s a id In r e l a t i o n to The Rainbow th a t by | equ ating n a tu re with th e unconscious c h a ra c te r , as he does ; In th a t book. Lawrence had done much to "make the whole ' e a rth Into a symbol of the fe a tu re s of the s o u l ." 122 And, he added, fo r the r e s t of h is l i f e Lawrence had explored i ! i t h a t symbolic m a te ria l "co n tin en t by co n tin en t In h is a r t i ; and t r a v e l s ." (p. 57) j Lawrence, h im self, was q u ite e x p l i c i t about the symbolic n atu re of h is w ritin g . Speaking of h is not having r e a liz e d the unconscious symbolism of Lady C h a tte r- l y 's Lover u n t i l the book was fin is h e d , he s a id : " a l l a r t is au fond sym bolic, conscious or unconscious, "123 He f e l t th a t I t was the unconscious symbolism and myth-making th a t l i f t e d American w ritin g above the lim its of European l i t e r a t u r e , endowed I t with g re a tn e s s. Myth, he d efin ed , as "an attem pt to n a rra te the whole human ex perien ce, of which the purpose is too deep, going too deep In the blood and s o u l, f o r mental ex p lan atio n and d esc rip tio n ."J-2* * Symbols, the Images of myth, do not "mean something," he p ro te s te d : They stand fo r u n its of human f e e l in g , human ex p erien ce. A complex of em otional experience Is a symbol. And the power of the symbol Is to arouse the deep em otional s e l f , and the dynamic s e l f , beyond comprehension. Many ages of accumu la te d experience w ill s t i l l throb w ith in a symbol. And we throb In response. I t takes c e n tu rie s to c re a te a r e a l l y s ig n if ic a n t symbol: even the sym bol of the C ross, or of the horseshoe, or the horns. No man can Invent symbols. He can Invent an emblem, made up of Images: or metaphors: or Images: but not symbols. Some Images, In the course of many g en e ratio n s of men, have become symbols, embedded In the soul and ready to s t a r t a liv e when touched, c a r r ie d on In the human con sciou sn ess f o r c e n tu r ie s , (p. 2 9 6 ) Much of the myth and symbolism of The Plumed Serpent I s o f t h e k i n d t h a t c a n a w a k e n c e n t u r i e s o f r e s p o n s e . T h e 155 c e n t r a l m y t h o f d e a t h a n d r e s u r r e c t i o n o f s o u l a n d b o d y I s I n t e g r a l t o w e s t e r n a s w e l l a s e a s t e r n r e l i g i o n a n d p h i l o s o p h y . T h a t L a w r e n c e I m a g e s t h e s o u l a s a t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y w o m a n s h o u l d n o t d i s t u r b ; n o r t h e I d e a t h a t t h e m a n - g o d I s o f t h i s t i m e a n d t h a t p l a c e . i : ! T h e s y m b o l s w h i c h a r e t h e I m a g e s o f m y t h a r e o f t e n s t r i k i n g l y e f f e c t i v e I n T h e P l u m e d S e r p e n t , w h e t h e r d r a w n i f r o m n a t u r e o r A z t e c b e l i e f s o r I n d i a n o c c u l t l o r e . S e r p e n t a n d b i r d a r e a l m o s t u n i v e r s a l l y h e l d t o i s y m b o l i z e t h e d e e p e s t p o w e r o f t h e u n i v e r s e , l i n k i n g t h i s w o r l d w i t h t h e o t h e r s — a b o v e a n d b e l o w . L a w r e n c e f o u n d I n t h e c o n c e p t o f t h e f e a t h e r e d s n a k e t h e r e p r e s e n t a t i o n o f t h e c o s m o s . C l p r l a n o , t h e w a r r l o r - h u m m l n g b l r d , t h e g o d I o f d e a t h a n d o f t h e s u n , a l s o r e p r e s e n t s t h o s e w o r l d s : t h e s e r p e n t o f d a r k n e s s I s c o l l e d I n h i s l o i n s , a n d a t t i m e s ■ i t s e e m s t h a t d a r k p i n i o n s s t a r t o u t o f h i s s h o u l d e r s a n d b a c k . O n s u c h o c c a s i o n s , h i s m e n s e e m e d t o s e e h i m " a s b y s e c o n d s i g h t , w i t h t h e d e m o n l s h c l a s h i n g , a n d d a s h i n g o f w i n g s , l i k e a n o l d g o d . " ( p . 3 9 7 ) ! T h e c h i e f s y m b o l I n t h e b o o k I s t h e c i r c l e , w h i c h h a d j l o n g b e e n a c c e p t e d I n E u r o p e a n t r a d i t i o n a s a s y m b o l o f ■ i p e r f e c t i o n o r o f t h e g o d h e a d . L a w r e n c e ' s r e a d i n g s I n j t ' I 1 t h e o s o p h y a n d I n d i a n m y s t i c i s m , a s w e l l a s h i s k n o w l e d g e o f a n c i e n t M e x i c a n r e l i g i o n s , c o n f i r m e d h i s b e l i e f I n t h a t | 156 form as a kind of d iv in e p e r fe c tio n . The arch a e o lo g ic a l fin d s he encountered in Mexico b o lste re d the notion he had deriv ed from the th e o so p h lsts th a t once the co n tin en t of | " A tla n tis" had e x is te d , en ab lin g men to wander back and > I f o r th and to share a "u n iv ersal" science th a t lin g e rs on i ■ i In the unconscious of a l l peop le . 125 i ! The c i r c l e symbol Is used re p eated ly In The Plumed J S erp e n t, as Clark has noted. I t Is Imaged f i r s t In the s o f t "spermy" lak e, which re p re s e n ts peace and e t e r n i t y . When Kate a r r iv e s In search of the newly r is e n Q uetzalcoat], she fin d s a t the lake the f i r s t sign of re s u rre c te d men: I the boatman with the morning s t a r In h is eyes (p. 100) and i the two men with whom she sh ares a communion of grace, "so | ; | much b e t t e r than lo v e." (p. 117) Ramon, C lprlan o, and i Kate bathe In I t s w aters to heal themselves and gain power.j A fter her Journey on the lake with C lprlano, Kate can "conceive" of m arriage with him; she makes h er f i n a l Jour ney across the lake to t e l l them she w ill submit and s ta y . j | The lak e, with I t s r e f l e c t i o n s of sun and s t a r s , holds' [ a l l space In I t s embrace — "trem bling, trem bling, tremb- : lin g to a f a r d is ta n c e ." (p. 105) I t holds a l l tim e. From ; I i t the boatman dredges up fo r her one of the clay fig u re s th a t belonged to "the time of the old gods." (p. 103) I t Is the I n f i n i t e m ystery, fo re v e r renewed. i i 157 Beyond the lake th e re Is c i r c u l a r movement. Time and space "wheel" fo r Kate. She achieves transcendence f i r s t In the g re a t "wheeling" dance In the p laza . The o uter wheel of the dance Is made up of men; she Joins the Inner one of women — "wheeling upon the g re a t wheel of woman hood." And In th a t dance: Men and women a lik e danced with fa c e s lowered and e x p re s s io n le s s , a b s t r a c t , gone Into the deep ab so rp tio n of men In to the g re a te r manhood, woman Into the g r e a te r womanhood. I t was sex. but the g r e a te r , not the le s s e r sex. The w aters over the e a rth wheeling upon the w aters under the e a r th , lik e an eagle s i l e n t l y wheeling above I t s own shadow. She f e l t her sex and her womanhood caught up and Id e n tif ie d In the slowly rev o lv in g ocean of nas cent l i f e , and the dark sky of the men lowering and wheeling above, (p. 143) There are c i r c l e s w ith in c i r c l e s . The emblem of the Q u etzalco atl movement, an eagle ringed by a serp en t with ; a t a l l In I t s mouth th a t Is — as Lawrence notes — "a c u rio u s d ev iatio n " (p. 129) of the Mexican n a tio n a l emblem: an eagle perched on a nopal c a c tu s, holding In beak and claws a w rith in g snake. 1 According to T in d a ll, who made the f i r s t d e ta ile d study of the symbolism of The Plumed S erp e n t, the d e v i a tio n was based on the th e o s o p h ls ts ' use of a t a l l - b i t i n g ! serp en t to symbolize e t e r n i t y , metempsychosis, and other m a tte rs . (More probably, Lawrence derived the symbol from Lewis Spence's Myths of Mexico and P eru. Spence says th a t North American Indians widely regarded the serp e n t as the symbol of l i f e because of I t s p h a llic s ig n ific a n c e ; how* e v e r, with some American Indian t r i b e s , notably the Pueblo j Indians of Arizona, i t a ls o had a s o la r s ig n ific a n c e , "and w ith t a l l In mouth symbolizes the annual round of the s u n .” (p. 7 4)) The Q u etzalco atl symbol suggests the " th ird eye" of the p in eal c e n te r, which allows I n i t i a t e s to "see" a s p i r i t u a l r e a l i t y . 12^ The "se c re t sun behind the sun" Is , as T in d all has pointed ou t, the soul of a l l th in g s of which the apparent sun Is only a symbol. Clark notes th a t the sun th a t b lazes so f ie r c e ly on Mexico was a l l th a t was ! 127 l e f t fo r the Aztecs when they fo rg o t the dark sun behind. The c i r c u l a r drums beat Into the blood, d iss o lv in g li n e a r conceptions of time and space. And one of the most j s t r i k i n g uses of the c i r c l e symbol occurs when Ramon a c ts to summon the power of the red H u ltz llo p o c h tll Into C lprlano . (p. 420) Standing behind C lprlano, he places h is hands on the o t h e r 's eyes, b re a s t, sh o u ld ers, lo in s . 1 With each successive touch, C lprlano fin d s him self moving through one c i r c l e of darkness a f t e r another u n t i l f i n a l l y ; "The l a s t c i r c l e was sweeping around, and the breath upon I the w aters was sink ing Into the w aters, and th e re was no | i more u tte ra n c e ." A fter t h a t , both pass Into p e rfe c t < 159 unconsciousness, (p. 4oU) Lawrence's symbolism Is highly e c l e c t ic , adapting what seems u sefu l from E astern and Western sources, ! r e je c t in g what does not s u i t h is purpose. Thus, ju s t as j he a lte r e d the Mexican n a tio n a l emblem, he a lte r e d t r a d l - i i ; I tlo n a l c o lo r symbolism. The H u ltz llo p o c h tll of The Plumed I Serpent Is a red god; In Mexican mythology he Is blue — ! ! the c o lo r of the mid-day sky and thus a s s o c ia te d with f i r e and heat In the Mexican m ind.12® Symbolism Is o ften stunningly e f f e c tiv e In The Plumed S erp e n t. The book Is weakened only when Lawrence s t r i v e s | consciously toward " a r t speech." Perhaps the b est c r l t l - | clsm of h is own book Is In the comments he made about , M elv ille : Nobody can be more clow nish, more clumsy and sen- te n tlo u s ly In bad t a s t e , than Herman M elv ille , even In a g re a t book lik e Moby Dick. . . . But he was a deep, g re a t a r t i s t , even i f he was r a th e r a s e n te n tio u s man . . . when he fo rg e ts a l l a u d i ence, and gives us h is sheer apprehension of the world, then he Is wonderful, h is book commands a s t i l l n e s s In the so u l, an awe.1^ i i But the Mexican work th a t does command "a s t i l l n e s s In the | ! soul" Is "The Woman Who Rode Away," th a t remarkable sh o rt : s to ry th a t Is a hymn to the sun and to death . I t p re se n ts ! i with deepest a r t i s t r y what Is now considered by some the h i s t o r i c a l r e a l i t y . ! l6o In the sto ry of the u n ln d lv id u a llz ed woman, "dead" w estern consciousness, who rid e s o ff Into the mountains In search of o th er gods and w illin g ly o ffe rs h e r s e lf as t h e i r s a c r i f i c e to the sun, Lawrence's sole concern Is with the myth he has shaped. The s e t t i n g , the Idea, the a c tio n , the symbol, and the s ty le are fused In c r e a tiv e In s p ir a tio n , with l i t t l e tra c e of conscious e f f o r t . I t Is one of Lawrence's f i n e s t a r t i s t i c achievements and Is h is u l t i mate psychological and s p i r i t u a l adventure. He reaches In t h i s the deepest point of the psychic Journey — not even Persephone In "Bavarian Gentians" goes f u r th e r . Im aginativ ely , the sto ry is h is most d arin g f e a t ; te c h n i c a l l y , h is most p e rfe c tly c o n tro lle d p re s e n ta tio n . Hough says of i t , a c c u ra te ly I th in k , th a t th e re Is no breach of u n ity In transform ing the a c tu a l Into symbolic: P sychological in s ig h t Is not c o n tra d ic te d by v isio n a ry th e o riz in g , but becomes I t s complete ex p ressio n ; a profound s e n s i b i l i t y to p laces and scenes ceases to be ex e rcised f o r I t s e l f and becomes a powerful element In a high ly organized w h ole.130 He moves from the lev e l of n atu ralism to symbolism, 1 from m lnd-consclousness to blood-consclousness, from i i d e a t h - l n - l l f e to ll f e - l n - d e a t h , from knowing to being, 1 with almost In c red ib le sureness and p o etic power. Leavls has c a lle d I t "a marvellous triumph of I n c a n ta tio n ."131 "The Woman Who Rode Away” may a lso be regarded as a t e r r i b l e prophecy. In an essay w ritte n a few months a f t e r he a rriv e d In New Mexico, Lawrence had warned th a t when the pueblos are gone, the people of the country would be shaken by a " te r r lb le c o n v u ls lo n ." The only hope, he sa id , was th a t w hites could make some adjustm ent to the Indian outlo ok, try in g to see as the Indians see w ithout f o r g e ttin g the white s e l f : For I t is a new era we have now got to cro ss in to . And our e l e c t r i c l i g h t w on't show us over the g u lf . W e have to f e e l our way by the dark thread of the old v is io n . Before I t la p s e s , l e t us take I t u p .132 He fashioned the sto ry during th a t w onderfully produc tlv e summer a t Kiowa w ith F rieda and B re tt before making the f i n a l t r i p to Mexico. I t Is of the sim plest m a te ria ls From anthropology g e n e ra lly he got the c e n tr a l Idea of the b e l i e f th a t humans s a c r if ic e d to the sun w ill Insure the growth of c r o p s .*33 From Mexican mythology, p a r t i c u l a r l y , he derived the Idea of the s a c r i f i c e of a woman, In the c h a ra c te r of the ”C om -m other." (p. U4U) In ancient r i t u a l s In Mexico a t the time of the w in ter s o l s t i c e a woman re p re s e n tin g Ila m a te c u h tll, "the mother g o d d e ss,” was k i l l e d . A fter her death , Burland says, according to custom th ere was "a g re a t deal of merry-making and happi ness and the h o rro r of the s a c r if i c e was l o s t in the 162 hopefulness of the re tu r n of the s u n ." 1^ Such a r e la tio n s h ip with the sun was em inently com preh en sib le to Lawrence; fre q u e n tly he conceives of I t as an a c tu a l one. In an essay on "New Mexico," which he wrote l a t e r , he said I t was "easy" to understand Aztecs* > g iv in g men's h e a rts to the sun. The New Mexican sun was so pure and so serene as M to make one s a c r i f i c e the h e a rt : to I t . "*35 I The s e t t i n g Is an amalgam of places In Mexico and New Mexico.*36 Although the sto ry p u rp o rts to be s e t in Chihuahua, I t takes place f u r th e r west in the d e so la te country Lawrence and G&tzsche had tra v e le d through In the i . j autumn of 1923. (The sto ry begins In autumn.} Lawrence ! | had w ritte n of the country to W itter Bynner In almost the very words he used In the s to ry : This West Is much wilder* em ptier, more hopeless than Chapala. I t makes one f e e l the door is shut on one. There Is a b lazin g sun, a v ast hot sky, b ig lonely green h i l l s and mountains . . . l i t t l e towns th a t seem to be slip p in g down an abyss — and the door of l i f e shut on I t a l l , only the sun burning, the clouds of b ird s p assin g , the zo p l- lo te s lik e f i l e s , the l o s t lonely palm t r e e s , the ; deep dust of the roads, the donkeys moving In a gold d u st cloud. In the mountains, l o s t , motlon- i le s s s i l v e r mines. Alamos, a once lovely l i t t l e town, l o s t , and slip p in g down the g u lf In the mountains, fo rty m iles up the aw fu lle st road I 'v e ever been b ru ised along. But somehow o r o th e r you | get th e r e . And more wonderful you get out again. I There seems a sentence of e x tin c tio n w ritte n over I t a l l . In the middle of the l i t t l e covered 163 market a t Alamos, between the meat and the vege t a b le s , a dead dog lay s tre tc h e d as I f a sle e p . The meat vendor said to the vegetable man: "You'd b e t t e r throw I t o u t." The veg-man looked a t the dead dog and saw no reason fo r throwing I t out. So no doubt I t s t i l l l i e s th e re . W e went a lso to haciendas - - a c a t t l e hacienda: w ild, w eird, j b r u ta l with a d e v a s ta tin g b r u t a l i t y . 137 | The opening d e s c rip tio n s In the sto ry p a r a l l e l th a t i almost e x a c tly : the "void h i l l s green In autumn, then ; becoming "pinkish s ta r k , dry and a b s t r a c t ,"138 The name le s s woman and her husband liv e In a " b ru ta l" hacienda. And the town nearby, the "dead, th rlc e -d e a d " Spanish town to which her husband took h e r, had "a g r e a t, su n-d ried dead church, the dead p o r ta le s , the hopeless covered i m arket-place where, the f i r s t time she went, she saw a dead dog ly in g between the m e a ts ta lls and the vegetable a rra y , s tre tc h e d out as If fo re v e r, nobody tro u b lin g to throw I t away. Deadness w ith in deadness." (pp. 546-47) A fter the woman s t a r t s on her Journey, the scene changes to the co u n try sid e near Taos th a t Lawrence had used so e f f e c tiv e ly In "The P rin c e ss," Dorothy B re tt has described i a t r i p they had made to the top of Lobo peaks, a t the i i upper end of San C risto b a l Canyon. She has described how | i ■ they s a t "entranced" th a t day by "the f i e r c e , dynamic j | lin e s of the rid g es running a g a in s t each o th e r . . . the i j pines lik e dark , s t i f f h a irs on them — the p a le , i 164 g h o s tlik e trunks of long-ago f o r e s t f i r e s — bare, green- gray grass where the tim ber lin e ends. . . , 139 They had been s t a r t l e d by th re e Indians r id in g toward them, "so much a p a rt of I t . , . lik e liv in g e a r t h ." (p. 152) That I is the very p lace , even to the th ree Indians whom the woman en counters. The f i n a l scene, the cave where the woman Is s a c r l - ! f lc e d , was a place In New Mexico th a t Lawrence had encoun te re d on an excursion with Mabel Luhan. To get to the cave they had to climb a n ea rly o b lite r a te d t r a i l , she remembered: The v a st pelvic-sh aped a p e rtu re faces the west and yawns upward to the sky; and over I t descends the mountain w ate r, f a l l i n g t h i r t y f e e t acro ss the face of the entrance to form an Icy pool below. | W e s k ir te d the w a te r f a ll and en tered the cavern j . . . a t the rig h t-h an d sid e of the back w all of the place th e re are a number of rude climbing step s th a t lead up to a shelving ledge. Above t h i s a lta r - 1 I k e ledge th ere Is a f a i n t sun painted ! high up to the e a s t of I t . One by one we climbed the high a l t a r , and, looking before us, we saw the c le a r f a l l of w ater across the opening, green and tra n s p a re n t. I t Is an a n c ie n t cerem onial cave . . . and tru ly i t Is f u l l of stran ge Influences . . . a t the w in ter s o l s t i c e , when the w ater has turned Into an Icy column, as the sun tu rn s to go south, I t shines through the e r e c t , tra n s p a re n t p i l l a r of Ice and f a l l s p re c is e ly upon the a l t a r . . . .140 The Indian v illa g e In the sto ry Is also more New Mexico than Mexico, with I t s te rra c e d ro o fs and s to rie d houses 165 lik e the ones he describ ee In "The Snake Dance" In Mornings In Mexico. The "C hllchui" Indians of the sto ry were modeled p a r tly on those he had met during h is Journey down the i West C oast: the Hulchol Indians of the S ie rra of N a y a r lt.1^ 1 A ctually, he owes more to Terry than to h is i ! own o b serv a tio n s; fo r he has combined what Terry rep o rted j | about both the Hulchol and the Tarahumara In d ian s. i 1 Lawrence was obviously fa sc in a te d by the c h a r a c t e r is t i c s of both t r i b e s , two of the most Iso la te d and whose legends and fo lk lo re "point to an extreme a n t i q u i t y . " 1* * 2 The two , groups resemble each o th e r In appearance - - "of medium I : ! s i z e , m uscular, with prominent cheek-bones, and of a i l i g h t , chocolate brown c o lo r." (p. 5 8 ) Both men and women wear long, flow ing black h a ir . Both p ra c tic e the "Hlkull" c u l t — annually making pilgrim ages to obtain the h a llu cinogenic peyote b u tto n s, which they e a t to Induce a s ta te ; of e c s ta s y . According to T e rry 's account the Tarahumara Indians have such endurance th a t "a healthy t r i b e member 1 can e a s ily run 170 m iles w ithout stopping" and many of them liv e "to a g re a t age." (p. 57) Both of those q u a i l - : ; j t i e s are n o tic e a b le in the Indians who take the woman to j i I \ t h e i r v i l l a g e . | S pecific c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the Hulcholes are 166 emphasized. No doubt Lawrence found t h e i r Independence adm irable. A w ild people, they were not conquered by the Spaniards u n t i l 1722 and, according to the e d itio n of T e rry 's guide Lawrence read , "the zealous f r i a r s found | these Indians d i f f i c u l t m a te ria l." (p. 92) Churches were ! In r u in s , no p r i e s t s liv ed th e re , and "the an c ie n t b e l i e f s i i and ceremonies are adhered to ." (p. 93) Lawrence a lso 1 used m a te ria l from a J e s u it p r i e s t ' s d e s c rip tio n of the Hulchol cou ntry, quoted by Terry: I t Is so wild and f r i g h t f u l to behold th a t I ts ruggedness, even more than the arrows of I t s war lik e In h a b ita n ts , took away the courage of the conquerors, not because only the rid g e s and v alley s appear In a c c e s s ib le , but the extended range of towering mountain peaks confused even the eye. ; (P. 93) | And the Hulchol drum Terry described Is Important In ; c re a tin g the "sound e f f e c ts " In the s to ry . He c a lle d I t j i a "curious Instrum ent," which Is hollowed from an oak log, i 1 ' covered a t one end with a d eerskin and placed on th ree i rude leg s. Standing above a d isc of s o l i d i f ie d volcanic i i ash In order "to Impart a sonorous sound," he added, I t is | beaten by the Shamenl (head p r i e s t s ) with the palm of the i hand. (p. 95) From such b i t s and p ieces Lawrence had the necessary ( e x te rn a ls f o r c re a tin g the s to ry . For the " I n t e r n a l s ,1 1 he | I made use of h is own psyche. The nameless woman Is, of 167 course, Lawrence, him self — Ju st as Kate was Lawrence. Don Ramon was Lawrence, C lprlano Vledma was Lawrence. A r a th e r f u t i l e d isc u ssio n rages about the " Id e n tity " of the c h a ra c te rs In the Mexican and New Mexican s t o r i e s . Although he used Frieda and Mabel and o th ers he knew or j met f o r " r e a l i s t i c " d e t a i l s — s iz e , shape, occupation, s o c ia l background**^ — they were simply scraps to v e il h is psyche: he was the c e n tr a l c h a ra c te rs of almost every th in g he wrote during th a t p erio d . "The Woman Who Rode Away" Is provided with enough c irc u m s ta n tia l d e t a i l to make her a presence. A la rg e , blue-eyed, t h i r t y - t h r e e y e a r-o ld C a lifo rn ia n , she had been lured Into marriage with Lederman. He Is the w iry, l i t t l e , tw isted a p o stle of Western values — a "dynamo of ! e n e rg y ,” who had been "kicked south" from the gold mines of the w estern United S ta te s to the s i l v e r mines of I I Mexico, having l e f t Holland as a youth to seek h is fo rtu n e In the "new world. "* * * * * The seemingly s u b s ta n tia l woman, with her husband, h er two c h ild re n , her s e rv a n ts, her g u e sts, h er flowered p a tio . Is only a ghost. She Is "dazed" (p. 5^7); she Is I | "dead," a l l her development k i l le d by Lederman — "a squeamish w alf of an I d e a l i s t ," a man who " r e a lly hated the ph ysical side of l i f e . " (p. 5^3) Thus, she Is the 168 western psyche or so u l. The p o s s i b i li t y of tru e l i f e — s o u l - l i f e , f e e lin g s - I l i f e — quickened in her when a young v i s i t o r asked her i ■ husband about the Indians and t h e i r s e c re t v illa g e s . He I | refu sed to be put o ff by Lederman*s d e r is io n , in s is tin g : i : "But su rely they must have old , old r e lig io n s and m yster- ! i ; le s — I t must be w onderful, surely I t m ust." (p. 5**9) I J Like Kate cry in g "Qlve me the mystery and l e t the world liv e again f o r me!" to her so u l, the nameless woman Is overcome "by a fo o lis h romanticism" and f e e ls th a t I t Is "her d e stin y to wander Into the s e c re t haunts of these ! tim e le s s, m ysterious, marvelous Indians of the m ountains." 1 (p. 549) She had never been allowed out alone. But Impelled by the promise of something In the mountains, when her ; husband goes o ff on a t r i p she cows the serv ant and leaves ! on the p re te x t of v i s i t i n g h er daughter a t the convent. | As she Journeys onward, her soul gains stre n g th d e sp ite 1 the h o rro rs of the country. She Is "curiously" u n afraid ' | as she heads south, over steep places and past g re a t i I t r e e s . Yet the country Is "frig h te n in g " — with I ts J I "fatal-seem in g " mountains, an occasional n ativ e hiding t among the t r e e s , "g re a t c a rrio n b ird s o ccasio n ally hover- i lng, lik e g re a t f i l e s , In the d is ta n c e . . . . " (p. 551) i She sleep s on the ground, and before dawn — lis te n in g to her horse sh iv e rin g — has her f i r s t m ystical experience: She was not sure th a t she had not heard, during the n ig h t, a g re a t crash a t the c e n tre of h e r s e lf , which was the crash of h er own d ea th . Or e ls e i t was a crash a t the c e n tre of the e a r th , and meant something big and m ysterious, (p. 5 5 2) That crash was the f i r s t lo ss of her w i l l . The next day she w earies and would have turned back i f she had any w ill of her own. Since she does n o t, she goes on. She encounters th re e Indians with long black h a ir . When one of them qu estio n s h e r, she r e p li e s only th a t she wishes to v i s i t the C hllchul people — "to see t h e i r houses and to know t h e i r gods." (p. 55*0 They co n sid er her answer fo r some time In s ile n c e ; then, s t r i k i n g h er horse, they urge i t on. She p ro te s ts f u rio u s ly , but her s p i r i t q u a ils when she meets the man's eyes: He looked a t her with a black, b rig h t Inhuman look, and saw no woman a t a l l . As i f she were some s tra n g e , unaccountable th in g , incomprehen s ib le to him, but in im ic a l, (p. 555) Wondering, she f e e l s th a t she has died; and l a t e r , ly ing awake during the "Icy and e te r n a l" n ig h t, she becomes aware th a t she has d ie d . (p. 557) The second p a rt of the sto ry — h er c a p tiv ity — begins when they cro ss a s la n t of liv in g rock and head down in to a green v a lle y . Men In red and orange and 170 yellow and black serapea come out to meet the group. Among them Is an old man who looks In to her eyes and through them "Into she knew not w hat." (p. 560) She t e l l s him through the young I n te r p r e te r th a t she Is "weary" of i ; her own god; she has come In search of the god of the I C h llc h u l. A fter t h a t , she Is led Into a house and taken I | Into an upper room Into the presence of the old c h ie f . When she Is asked I f she has brought her h e a rt to t h e i r i | god, she says y es. Then they s t r i p h er c lo th e s from her, i 1 l e t down her h a i r , and lead her back to the old man, who touches her on the b r e a s ts , body, and back. At f i r s t she i winces as the f i n g e r ti p s draw along h er sk in , "as I f Death ; h im self were touching h e r." Then she becomes sad and lost,j ; "as I f h er body were not her own." (p. 564) i She Is given new c lo th in g — a white s h i f t and a blue woolen tun ic — and Imprisoned In a l i t t l e house. Tbere ! she sees the symbols of soul and sun: red flow ers and a | hummingbird. And she hears the drum, which speaks to the ! pulse and announces the r i t u a l to come. The young Indian 1 re tu rn s and o ffe rs her a sweetened liq u o r th a t awakens her ; to sensual awareness (th e peyote c u l t ) . A fter vomiting j v io le n tly , she f e e ls a soothing languor overcoming her: . . . she f e l t aa I f a l l her senses were d iffu s e d on the a i r , th a t she could d is tin g u is h the sound of evening flow ers u n folding , and the a c tu a l c r y s t a l sound of the heavens, as the v ast b e lts of world-atmosphere s l i d p ast one another, and as I f the m oisture ascending and the m oisture descending In the a i r resounded lik e some harp In the cosmos, (pp. 5 6 6- 6 7 ) A s t h e w e e k s p a s s , a n d t h e d a y s g r o w s h o r t e r , h e r p e r c e p t i o n s b e c o m e m o r e I n t e n s e . O c c a s i o n a l l y , h e r w i l l re v iv e s In th e cold; she f e e l s t e r r o r and a d e s ire to go a w a y . H e r J o u r n e y t o w a r d t h e d e a t h o f t h e e g o r e a c h e s a c l i m a x a f t e r t h e d a n c e c e r e m o n y . A s s h e l i s t e n s t o t h e s o u n d o f t h e m e n s i n g i n g a n d w a t c h e s t h e d a n c e r s , s h e f e e l s — a s K a t e h a d f e l t I n t h e p l a z a — t h a t : H e r k i n d o f w o m a n h o o d , I n t e n s e l y p e r s o n a l a n d I n d i v i d u a l w a s t o b e o b l i t e r a t e d a g a i n , a n d t h e g r e a t p r i m e v a l s y m b o l s w e r e t o t o w e r o n c e m o r e o v e r t h e f a l l e n I n d i v i d u a l i n d e p e n d e n c e o f w o m a n . The sharpness and the q u iv erin g nervous conscious ness of the h ighly-b red white woman was to be destroyed again, womanhood was to be c a s t once more Into the g re a t stream of Impersonal sex and Impersonal p assion, (p. 5 6 9 ) H e r o n l y c o m p a n i o n s h i p l a w i t h t h e y o u n g m a n , w h o h a s b e e n n o r t h a n d s p e a k s a l a n g u a g e o t h e r t h a n t h e t r i b a l d i a l e c t . H e t e l l s h e r t h a t t h e I n d i a n s h a v e l o s t t h e i r p o w e r s i n c e t h e w h i t e m e n s t o l e t h e s u n a n d t h e w h i t e w o m a n s t o l e t h e m o o n . B u t t h e y c a n n o t k e e p t h e m ; t h e y a r e c h i l d i s h a n d k n o w n o t h i n g ; 172 W e know the sun, and we know the moon. And we say, when a white woman s a c r i f i c e s h e r s e lf to our gods, then our gods w ill begin to make the world ag ain , and the white man's god w ill f a l l to p ie c e s, (p. 571) The t h ir d and f i n a l p a rt of the sto ry takes place in w inter In the high v a lle y . Her w ill Is now almost non e x i s t e n t. And the sweetened d rin k numbs her mind, ! ! | re le a s in g her senses Into "a s o r t of heightened, mystic i I acuteness and a fe e lin g as I f she were d if f u s in g out d e lic io u s ly Into the harmony of t h i n g s . ” (p. 572) That s t a t e of consciousness becomes the only one she can recog n iz e . She a ls o senses th a t a shadow has f a l l e n on the In d ian s. T heir e f f o r t s to get back the sun Involve j i s u ffe rin g : "he Is wild with us, and shy lik e a horse th a t i I has got away." (p. 572) When she t e l l s her companion that I | she hopes they w ill recover the sun, he seems e x u lta n t. The woman meets again with the old c h ie f , who asks | her to make the sign of peace. Then she Is brought before ! the people, wearing a blue blanket and holding blue : fe a th e rs in her hand. Blue, he t e l l s h er, is the c o lo r < : of the wind and of death. She, with her blue eyes, is a j messenger from a f a r , who must re tu r n to the sun — "the ! I blue mother of r a i n ” and say th a t the "people” can bring the sun to the moon. A fter a ceremony In the dark chamber, during which , 1 | - - 1 173 she Is tr e a te d as "some mystic o b j e c t , ” she Is led to the roo f and e x h ib ite d to the people. The follow ing day she Is taken to the plaza In a l i t t e r ; she is c a rrie d out of the plaza through the v a lle y In the procession led by "g o ld en -red ” men In cerem onial garb. They dance up to an am phitheater fa c in g a w all of hollow rock, down the fro n t of which hangs a g r e a t, fang-1Ike I c ic le . The l i t t e r b ea rers then c a rry her up the c l i f f to a cave behind the Ice fang. There she Is disrobed during an e la b o ra te c e re mony. Then she Is la id on a f l a t stone — In the Aztec r i t u a l pose Lawrence had read so much about. During an ab so lu te s ile n c e a l l w a it, including the an c ie n t c h ie f and a naked p r i e s t with a k n ife , f o r the sun to shine through the Ice onto the a l t a r . All Is suspended f a r beyond the end of the sto ry In th a t w aitin g - - before the old c h ie f s t r i k e s a t her h e a r t, accomplishes the s a c r i f i c i a l ceremony, and achieves power fo r h is people. The w aitin g resounds with echoes of the c lo sin g l i n e , in which Lawrence — from a remote d istan ce — comes back as author to the t e l l i n g of the t a l e , lik e some an c ie n t bard. He c a l l s the power: "The mastery th a t man must hold, and th a t passes from race to r a c e . ” (p. 5 8 1) In t h i s s to ry , Lawrence seems to have pen etrated to 174 the c e n te r of the mystique of to d a y ’s “th ir d world re v o lu ti o n ." The re a d e r is tr a n s la te d from the ordinary world | of su rfa ces and seemInga in to a world of p rim itiv e j “ k n o w i n g " a n d " f e e l i n g . " T h e r e a r e n o s u b j e c t i v e v i c t i m s j a n d v l c t l m l z e r s . T h e y o u n g I n d i a n , w h o h a s b e e n h e r j I n t e r p r e t e r a n d w h o h a s r e t u r n e d f r o m t h e w h i t e m a n ’ s i , w o r l d t o t a k e h i s p l a c e a s h e i r o f t h e o l d c h i e f , l i k e s ! | the woman p erso n a lly — although "Im personally he hated her with a mystic h a tre d ." (p. 576) She had l o s t both w ill and wish to r e s i s t : "I am dead alread y , what d i f f e r ence does I t make, the t r a n s i t i o n from the dead I am to i the dead I s h a ll be, very soon!" (p. 579) In t h i s E x is t e n t i a l Now th e re Is only the f a c t th a t fle s h must give way to word, th a t power can be regained only by the a c t. ' T h e s t o r y f u l f i l l s t h e p r o p h e c y h e m a d e I n h i s d i s c u s s i o n i o f M o b y D i c k . I t m a k e s a f i n a l r e v e l a t i o n o f t h e ' d o o m s d a y ' h e h a d f o r e t o l d : " D o o m o f o u r w h i t e d a y . We a r e d o o m e d , d o o m e d . A n d t h e d o o m I s i n A m e r i c a . T h e d o o m o f o u r w h i t e d a y . " 1 ^ | S t y l i s t i c a l l y a s w e l l a s s y m b o l i c a l l y " T h e W o m a n W h o | R o d e A w a y " l a a h i g h a c h i e v e m e n t . T h e p r o s e o f t h e M e x i c a n , I i i a n d N e w M e x i c a n p e r i o d r e a c h e s h e i g h t s o f p o e t i c i e x a lta tio n . T h e g r e a t p e r i o d o f i n t e n s e p o e t i c a c t i v i t y — t h e i p e r i o d o f B i r d s , B e a a t a a n d F l o w e r s — w h i c h b e g a n I n T u s c a n y I n t h e a u t u m n o f 1 9 2 0 e n d e d , d e s p i t e L a w r e n c e ' s c o n t r a r y a s s e r t i o n , b e f o r e h e a r r i v e d I n A m e r i c a I n 1 9 2 3 .***6 T h e p o e m s o f t h a t p e r i o d r e p r e s e n t t h e f l o w e r i n g o f h i s " d e m o n , " H i s p o e t r y h a d f o l l o w e d a c u r i o u s p a t t e r n , ! B e g i n n i n g w i t h t h e " f i c t i o n a l " p o e m s l i k e " W e d d i n g M o r n " a n d t h e " d i a l e c t " p o e m s , w h i c h s t r i v e t o w a r d t h e i r o n y o f H a r d y a n d H o u a m a n , i t h a d g o n e t h r o u g h t h e p e r i o d o f h i g h l y s u b j e c t i v e , r o m a n t i c v e r s e w r i t t e n d u r i n g t h e c r i s i s t h a t f o l l o w e d t h e d e a t h o f h i s m o t h e r . T h o s e e a r l y p o e m s h a d l e d h i m , o v e r h i s p r o t e s t s , i n t o t h e I m a g i s t m o v e m e n t . H i s " d i s c o v e r e r , " F o r d M a d o x F o r d , i n t r o d u c e d h i m t o P o u n d , w h o a p p r o p r i a t e d a n d d e f e n d e d h i m a s a t r u e b e l i e v e r . l2 *"^ H i l d a D o o l i t t l e , R i c h a r d A l d i n g t o n ' s w i f e w h o w o r k e d w i t h P o u n d t o f o r m t h e j I m a g i s t g r o u p , a g r e e d . S o d i d Amy L o w e l l , w h o i n v i t e d h i m t o J o i n f o r o e s I n 1 9 1 ^ . L a w r e n c e ' s r e l u c t a n c e v a n i s h e d a f t e r Amy L o w e l l p o i n t e d o u t t o h i m t h e I m a g i s t n a t u r e o f h i s g e n i u s ; I n " W e d d i n g M o r n , " f o r e x a m p l e , h e d e s c r i b e s 1 t h e m o r n i n g a s b r e a k i n g " l i k e a p o m e g r a n a t e / I n a s i n k i n g c r a c k o f r e d . " 12*® i A l t h o u g h h e a l l o w e d h i s p o e t r y t o a p p e a r I n I m a g i s t j p u b l i c a t i o n s , h e r e f u s e d t o b e b o u n d b y t h e c r e e d . N o r j 1 w o u l d h e b e b o u n d b y o t h e r c o n v e n t i o n s . W h e n E d w a r d M a r s h , j 176 h is e d i t o r , objected to h is m e tric a l I r r e g u l a r i t i e s In 1913* he w rote: "You are wrong," and re je c te d suggestions th a t he mend h is ways: i 1 th in k I read my poetry more by length than by ! i s t r e s s — as a m atter of movements In space than j I fo o ts te p s h i t t i n g the e a r th . . . . I th in k more ! j of a b ird with broad wings f ly in g and lap sin g ! I through, the a i r , than anything, when I think of m etre. 1^*9 And, ag ain , In answer to M arsh's In siste n c e : "About metresJ I s h a ll have to pray fo r grace from God. But ( s c i s s o r s : ) I th in k S helley a m illio n thousand times more b e a u tifu l : than M ilton." (p. 80) The Influence of Shelley Is s t r i k i n g In many of the i unrhymlng poems In the s e r ie s Look! We Have Come Through!i ' which began In 1912 a f t e r h is elopement with Frieda and continued Into 1917. Some of the poems have Just th a t ; I un earth ly q u a lity of fly in g and lap sin g through a i r , as ■ "Song of a Man Who Has Come Through," with I ts minimal Imagery and powerful sense of movement: i Not I , not I , but the wind th a t blows through me I ! A fin e wind Is blowing the new d ir e c tio n of tim e. ! I f only I l e t I t bear me, carry me. I f only I t carry me! I f only I am s e n s i t i v e , s u b tle , oh, d e l i c a t e , a winged g i f t . . . .1 5 0 The so arin g q u a lity was given firm ness by h is asso - j I J j e l a t i o n w ith the Im aglsts and freedom by the Important j Influence of Whitman: the co n v e rsatio n al rhythms, the i 177 sta n z a -se n te n c e s, the tendency to c a ta lo g , and — above a l l - - the r e p e t i t i o n of many of the moat s t r ik i n g poems of B ird s. Beast and Flow ers. ^51 Consider "Eagle In M ew Mexico," one of the few poems of the American exp erience: j < j i Why do you fro n t the sun so o b s tin a te ly , j American eagle? I As I f you owed him an o ld , old grudge, g re a t sun; i or an old, old a lle g ia n c e . | When you pick the red smoky h e a rt from a ra b b it ! or a lig h t blooded b ird Do you l i f t I t to the sun, as Aztec p r i e s t s used to l i f t red h e a rts of men? Does the sun need steam of blood do you th ink In America, s t i l l , Old eagle?152 And again in "Sun-Women," w ritte n a f t e r h is re tu r n to | Europe fo r the l a s t time: How stran g e I t would be I f some women came forward and sa id : W e are sun women] W e belong n e ith e r to men nor our c h ild re n j nor even ourselves but to the sun. And how d e lic io u s I t Is to fe e l sunshine upon one] And how d e lic io u s to open lik e a marigold when a man comes looking down upon one with sun In h is fa c e , so th a t a woman cannot but open, lik e a m arigold In the sun, and t h r i l l with g l i t t e r i n g ra y s. (Vol. 2, p. 26l) ! In a d d itio n to the Influence of Im aglsts and Whitman, i a l a s t i n g influence had been the hymns he learned as a i c h ild and never fo rg o t. He had "got over" C h ris tia n dogma! I by the age of s ix te e n , he said — ideas of s a lv a tio n . heaven, m ira c le s, r i g h t and wrong. But hymns were d i f f e r ent since they " liv e and g l i s t e n In the depths of the man's consciousness In undlmmed wonder, because they have not been su b jected to any c r itic is m of a n a l y s i s . " 1 ^ The hymns and some of the B ib lic a l events and places stlm u- la te d h is sense of wonder, which he con siders "our six th sense . . . the n a tu ra l r e lig io u s sen se." (p. 187) In w ritin g about h is childhood experiences In the Congrega- t l o n a l l s t chapel, he said he was "glad" they had used the B r is to l hymn-book r a th e r than Moody and Sankey and th a t t h e i r Scotch m in is te r had g e n e ra lly avoided "sentim ental messes" because of h is p reference fo r "healthy hymns" and "m artial hymns": "That g h astly sentim entalism th a t came lik e leprosy over r e li g i o n had not yet got hold in our c o l l i e r y v i l l a g e ." (pp. 192- 9 3 ) One of the s in g u la r asp e cts of the American e x p e ri ence was th a t the wonder expressed I t s e l f In prose r a th e r than p o etry . As Richard Aldington has pointed ou t, h is p o etic production h a lte d almost com pletely. Although England, Germany, and I t a l y were a l l "favorable" to Lawrence's w ritin g p o etry , America — where he had r e s ponded with the g r e a te s t sense of wonder to the s p i r i t of place - - had not b e e n . ^5** Exceptions are the few New Mexican poems and the "hymns" th a t form an In te g ra l p a rt 179 of The Plumed S e rp e n t, which help to give th a t book I ts d i s t i n c t i v e q u a lity . In D. H. Lawrence In America, Arnold a s s e r ts th a t the hymns were Influenced c h ie fly by h is reading of books on Aztec r e lig io n , (p. 118) Other c r i t i c s agree. But what 1 i ! has not been explored f u lly by l i t e r a r y c r i t i c s or a n th ro - j i p o lo g ls ts Is the e x tra o rd in a ry In tu itIv e n e s s with which Lawrence grasped the manner and meaning of American Indian ! p o etry , Ju st as he had somehow "seen" the meaning of the i j Indian dances. In The Winged S erp e n t, Margot Astrov says th a t to the i a b o rig in a l people of t h i s co n tin en t songs are not a means I of spontaneous s e lf-e x p re s s io n : "The word, Indeed, Is I j power. I t Is l i f e , substance, r e a l i t y . The word liv e s ; before the e a r th , sun, or moon came Into e x i s t e n c e . 5 | | The s in g e r, then, sings to e x e rt power — p rin c ip a lly to | b ring about change in h im self, h is fellow beings, or In ; n atu re : ' By n a r ra tin g the sto ry of o rig in , he endeavors to 1 influence the universe and to stren g th en the f a l l ing power of the su p ern a tu ral beings. He r e la te s the myth of c r e a tio n , cerem onially, In order to i save the world from death and d e s tru c tio n and to keep a liv e the prim eval s p i r i t of the sacred I beginning, (p. 19) The A ztecs, p a r t i c u l a r l y , believed th a t speech was so d iv in e th a t I t enabled gods to speak with men and men 180 to speak with gods. As Irene Nicholson has noted In her study of a n c ie n t Mexican poetry and symbolism, songs and flow ers were symbols f o r the power of tru e speech. Song was d escrib ed as "a f i r e f l y In the nigh t" — the tin y fla s h in g s t a r of the dark e a rth . I t was a lso "a wind from i | ! the gods." Flowers, she says, were the v is u a l eq u iv alen t i ; i of song: "not n a tu ra l ev e n ts, but symbols fo r v is ib le i i t r u t h , " Ju st as songs were the symbol fo r spoken t r u t h . 156 Song, In f a c t , was the only tru e th in g In t h is world of forms surrounding us on e a rth : I t was thus a kind of bridge between the noumenal and the phenomenal w orlds, (pp. 9 5- 6 ) Not only was Nahua song non-personal and non- ; In d iv id u a l, as a r e s u l t , I t was not even an expressio n of I | the " r e la tiv e ly b lin k ered viewpoint" of mankind, Miss j Nicholson says: , | ! Frequently th ere e n te rs a more cosmic and Imper sonal n o te , which Is a p t a t f i r s t to c h i l l , u n t i l we r e a l i z e th a t i t s sound Is a g r e a t, Inclusive harmony of a l l sounds, of the winds and the song of b ird s , dreams and f i r e and the r u s t l e of growing flo w ers, (p. 1 1 2) ! | j That was p re c is e ly the e f f e c t Lawrence was try in g to convey1 i In h is w ritin g s of Mexico and New Mexico and succeeded so b r i l l i a n t l y In doing in the prose of "The Woman Who Rode i Away." | Dance was regarded as p a rt of the song among the Aztecs and o th e r Indians — a s , Indeed, they are s t i l l 181 regarded. Through sound and g estu re flow the fe e lin g s of d istin g u is h e d Mexican c r i t i c , has s tre s s e d the need to co n sid er the an cien t poetry a g a in s t the background of the j sacred monuments and the r e lig io u s ceremonies — the | temples s e t upon high pyramids, the s tr id e n t sounds of j conch s h e l l s , the pulse of the drums, the h l e r a t l c a l s ta tu e s , the b r i l l i a n t sun on "whom" depended a l l l i f e and must, th e re fo re , receiv e the g i f t of l i f e In re tu r n . ! Even today, he says: Pour c e n tu rie s l a t e r th ere s t i l l b eats In the h e a rt of every Mexican a l i t t l e of th a t blood which once s t i r r e d the emotions before the r i s i n g sun, Incarnate In H u ltz llo p o c h tll, or danced In the gay f e r t i l i t y of the h a rv e sts beneath the ! blessed r a in of Tlrfloc, who continues to produce the d iv in e corn, bread of the dark-skinned people | and Joy of the f i e l d s , with I t s le a fy song and murmur of g r a ln - s ta lk s . And the poetry of the j Mexican r e ta in s an echo of th a t holy song.157 So do some of Lawrence’s hymns In The Plumed S e rp e n t. with t h e i r p a tte rn s of statem ent and r e f r a i n , r e p e t i t i o n , j n atu re Imagery, flo w e r-b ird -s ta r-J e w e l symbolism, m ystical i ! i passion fo r d ea th , t h e i r powerful and almost superhuman ' tone, t h e i r hypnotic In c a n ta tio n : j The Lords of Life are the M asters of Death. Blue is the breath of Q u e tz a lc o a tl. | Red Is H u ltz llo p o c h tll's blood. i But the grey dog belongs to the ash of the world. \ j The Lords of L ife are the Masters of Death. 1 * Living are the Lords of L ife, the h e a rt, where god " liv e s ." Angel Marla Garlbay, the 182 Blue Is the deep sky and the deep w ater. Red la the blood and the f i r e . Y e l l o w l a t h e f l a m e . The bone la white and a l i v e . The h a ir of n ig h t la dark over our fa cea. | But the grey doga are among the aahea. j The Lorda of Life are the Maatera of Death, (p. 4i4) i : And a ahort time l a t e r , during " H u ltz llo p o c h tll' a N ight," 1 C lprlano holds out a t u f t of black fe a th e ra or leaves to | the would-be murderers of Quetzalcoatl-Ramon and says: I i H u ltz llo p o c h tll glvea the black blade of death, j Take I t bravely. Take death b rav ely . Go bravely acro ss the border, adm itting your m istake. Determine to go on and on, t i l l you e n te r the Morning S ta r. Q u etzalco atl w ill ahow you the way. M alln tzl of the green dreaa w ill open the door. . . . (p. 514) i Some of the hymns are marred by awkward rhymes — | echoes, perhaps, of the m ilita n t hymns of h is childhood. Among them la the song of the s o lita r y s in g e r, chanting i > a f t e r R a m o n ' s s e r m o n I n t h e c o u r t y a r d : The Lord of the Morning S ta r Stood between the day and the n ig h t: Aa a b ird th a t l i f t s I t s wings, and atanda W i t h t h e b r i g h t w i n g o n t h e r i g h t ! And the wing of the dark on the l e f t , The Dawn S ta r stood In s ig h t. i ! . i I am f a r beyond i The horizons of love and s t r i f e , i Like a s t a r , lik e a pond That washes the lo rd s of l i f e . (pp. 195-96) The prose of The Plumed Serpent and "The Woman Who 183 Rode Away" possesses to a high degree those q u a l i t i e s c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of the b e st of the hymns — Indeed, s u r passes the hymns. I t moves su rely from the c o llo q u ia l c a re le s s n e ss or casu aln ess of the f i r s t r e a l i s t i c ch ap ters I and paragraphs, with t h e i r c lic h e s , ta g s , and f l a t e x p r e s - ; a Ions of waste land c u ltu r e , to a prose so Intense th a t I t ! | i seems as I f d i r e c t communication has been e s ta b lis h e d [ i between the "d e ifie d h e a rts " of the reborn men and women and the "sun behind the sun" of the liv in g u n iv erse. As e a rly as The Rainbow (even some passages of The White Peacock), he d isplay ed an unusual a b i l i t y by the I stren g th of h is metaphors and rhythms to b ring to g e th e r | n atu re and c e r t a i n unconscious human s t a t e s of fe e lin g s , and awareness. In d isc u ssin g the famous opening passage ' of The Rainbow In which Lawrence d esc rib es the l i f e of j the Qrangwens, whose "blood flowed heavy with the accumu- ! la tIo n from the liv in g day,"Leavls says th a t Lawrence was not Indulging In d e s c rip tiv e ly ricism or try in g " p o e tl- i c a lly " to generate atmosphere. R ather, words are used to 1 i j e s ta b lis h "as an a c tu a l presence" the kind of "Intense ! apprehension of the u nity of l i f e " th a t Is e s s e n t i a l to l : | the w r i t e r ’s them e.*58 Moynahan f e e l s th a t the pow erfullyj | rhythmic phrasing of the d e s c rip tio n Is designed "to j r e - c r e a te in language an eq u iv alen t of the con dition , 184 I t s e l f . . . compelling Im aginative a sse n t from the th resh o ld of c o n sc io u sn e ss.,fl59 By working on the n e rv e s, Lawrence sought to " a r tic u la t e the mystery of the Inhuman s e l f and the forces to which I t responds In a language ! ! i 1 t h a t c a n m e d i a t e b e t w e e n w h a t I s v i s i b l y g o i n g o n a n d w h a t I s g o i n g o n ' e s s e n t i a l l y ' . " ( p . 53) > S o m e o f t h e t e c h n i c a l d e v i c e s L a w r e n c e u s e d t o i i a c h i e v e h i s e f f e c t s a r e p r i m i t i v e a n d o b v i o u s . H e w a s a s | i d e l i g h t e d a s a c h i l d o r a F u n d a m e n t a l i s t p r e a c h e r o r E d g a r A l l e n P o e w i t h r e p e t i t i o n I n a l l I t s f o r m s — s o u n d s , w o r d s , p h r a s e s , e v e n w h o l e s e n t e n c e s a n d p a r a g r a p h s . , A l l i t e r a t i o n s e e m s a l m o s t a c o m p u l s i o n , w i t h s o m e t i m e s a s | i j m a n y a s h a l f t h e w o r d s I n a n e x t e n d e d s e n t e n c e b e g i n n i n g : w i t h o n e o f h i s f a v o r i t e c o n s o n a n t s — " s , " " b , " " p , " " d , " " w , " " h . " C o n s i d e r t h e n e x t t o t h e l a s t s e n t e n c e i n T h e r P l u m e d S e r p e n t t " I t s o u n d e d s o s o f t , s o s o f t - t o n g u e d , o f t h e s o f t , w e t , h o t b l o o d , t h a t s h e s h i v e r e d a l i t t l e , " (p. 486) Not even Poe, whose nervous v lb ra tln g s he so i d e te s te d , could have been more determ ined to m anipulate sound In order to go beyond sense. The r e p e t iti o n of "s" followed by the long back vowel Is s l i g h t l y a lte r e d In the i abrupt f i n a l clau se to "sh" follow ed by the sh o rt high I i i f r o n t v o w e l I n a n a l m o s t h y p n o t i c m a n n e r . T h e s e n t e n c e , j w h i c h I n d i c a t e s K a t e ' s f i n a l s o u l s u b m i s s i o n , I s p r e c e d e d j 185 by one a few lln e a e a r l i e r In which C lprlano, who la I d e n tif ie d with the sun and the serpent of power, t e l l s her to s ta y : "Then came h is soft-to n g u ed Indian speech, as I f a l l h is mouth were s o f t , saying In Spanish . . . " (P. *87) The sensuous awareness c reated by such r e p e t it i o n i | makes b e lie v a b le the changing r e la tio n s h ip s of people with j j each o th er and the u n iv erse . In the ch ap ter In which Kate | ; m arries her demon lo v e r, she f i r s t becomes aware of h is ■ " p h a llic m ystery," h is "Pan-power" while rid in g to Ramon's i hacienda. S i t t i n g In the motor c a r — to Lawrence one of the most d e te s ta b le symbols of the world of metal — she | r e a l iz e s the m ystical p o s s i b i l i t i e s of "membrane." That i : I awareness is conveyed In a s e r ie s of sentences and fra g - 1 | menta. In which the In c re d ib le Is made c re d ib le by sheer ) r e p e t i t i o n of words lik e "power," " p rim itiv e ," "Pan," i i ! "prim eval," "prone," " p i l l a r . " Sentences b u ild up with ; h u rric an e fo rc e , with phrase p lie d upon phrase and clause i ' upon c la u s e , sweeping the re a d e r Into acceptance: ' She could see again the sk ie s go dark, and the ' p h a llic mystery re a rin g I t s e l f lik e a w h irlin g dark cloud, to the z e n ith , t i l l I t pierced the i sombre, tw ilig h t z e n ith ; the old supreme p h a llic j j m ystery. And h e r s e lf In the e v e r la s tin g t w ilig h t, | i a sky above where the sun ran amoklly, an e a rth ! below, where the tr e e s and c re a tu re s rose up In | blackness, and man stro d e along naked, dark, t h a I f - v i s i b l e , and suddenly w hirled In supreme , 186 power, towering lik e a dark whirlwind column, w h irlin g to p ierc e the very z e n ith , (pp. 340— 41) Sound and motion Imagery are enhanced by Lawrence's fondness f o r p a r t i c i p i a l endings, which give h is w ritin g the "flow" he f e l t so Im portant. Color Imagery Is used i to e s ta b lis h the here and now of the s t o r i e s , the su rface r e a l i t y . But as c h a ra c te rs begin to p e n e tra te the " l i v ing u n iv erse" and f e e l themselves a t one with the m y s te ry ,■ i c o lo r Is abandoned fo r sound and motion. The most s t r l k - 1 Ing example of th a t occurs In "The Woman Who Rode Away." ' The only sense the "dead" woman possesses In her waste land surroundings when she Is f i r s t Introduced Is the j sense of s ig h t: she sees from her flowered p a tio "the huge I I pink cone of the sllver-m ud re fu s e " ; she sees the "dead, ; th rlc e -d e a d " l i t t l e Spanish tow n.^O She begins to f e e l and to hear only a f t e r she has | s t a r t e d on h er Journey to the sun. S hortly before dawn of the f i r s t n ig h t, she hears the "g reat crash" e i t h e r a t I the c e n te r of h e r s e lf or the c e n te r of the e a r th , (p. 5 5 2) i i The Indians do not see h er as a b e a u tifu l w hite woman; i j one of them regards her "with a b lack , b rig h t Inhuman i i look, and saw no woman a t a l l . " (p. 555) The old c h ie f i perceiv es her through h is fin g e r t i p s ; and she f e e ls h is f i n g e r ti p s on h er b r e a s ts , body, and back "as If Death 187 I t s e l f were touching h e r." (p. 56*0 A fter she has been awakened Into sensual awareness, she h e a r s ; the "sound of evening flow ers unfolding" (p. 565)* m oisture ascending and descending, " lik e some harp In the cosmos" (p. 5 6 6); "the v ast sound of the e a rth going round, lik e some Immense a rro w -strln g booming." (p. 568) She hears the s t a r s , j ! | | "speaking from t h e i r motion and b rig h tn e s s ," and the snow, j " tw itte r in g and f a i n t l y w h is tlin g In the sky, lik e b ird s | th a t flo c k and f ly away In autumn." She s m e lls : "the i sweetness of the moon re la x in g to the sun In the w intry heaven," (p. 572) As she becomes p a rt of the liv in g u n iv erse , s ig h t | vanishes a lto g e th e r , as I t does fo r the Indians In t h e i r I i ! m ystical s t a t e — w aitin g "as I f s ig h tle s s " fo r the sun to send I t s ray through the fang of Ic e. C lprlano reaches j the s ta t e of "p e rfe c t unconsciousness" through c i r c l e s of ! ! d arkn ess. In "Bavarian G entians," Persephone descends to ; the " s ig h tle s s realm where darkness Is awake upon the | d a r k ." 1^ 1 And u ltim a te ly Lawrence, h im self, was prepared ; i to seek "the darkness th a t enfo ld s him Into u t t e r peace i i a t l a s t , a t l a s t , beyond Innumerable s e a s." (p. 182) : I S t y l i s t i c a l l y , the Mexican experience enabled j Lawrence to reach new h e ig h ts. Even so m eticulous a craftsm an as Katherine Anne P o rte r, who regarded The 188 Plumed Serpent as a "debased myth" and an In d ic a tio n of "the c a ta stro p h e" th a t had overtaken the w r i t e r , sa id : j For sheer magnificence of w ritin g , Lawrence has j i surpassed h im self. His s ty le has rip en ed , : so ften ed , th e re Is a melancholy h in t of the over- j ; ric h n e ss of autumn. Who looks fo r mere phrases | from him? He w rite s by the passage, by the chap- i I t e r , a prose f le x i b le as a w hiplash, uneven and j harmonious as breakers r o l l i n g upon a beach, and the sound is music. His language r i s e s from the ! page not In words but in a s e r ie s of Images before 1 the eye: human beings move In v lv ld landscapes, wrapped In a p h y sical rem oteness, y e t speaking with a g h o stly Intim acy, as I f you were l i s te n in g to the s e c re t pulse of t h e i r v e i n s .162 Not the l e a s t achievement was the f i n a l work of th a t p erio d , the u n fin ish ed novel, The F lying F is h . W ritten down by F rieda as they l e f t Mexico f o r the l a s t tim e, with : Lawrence so 111 he could not hold a pen, I t Is a d is tu r b ing and t a n t a l i z i n g f i n a l e . The sto ry is cen tered around Oethln Day, an e x - s o ld ie r and descendant of an E lizab ethan 1 house. His voluntary e x ile in Mexico ends when he receives: | a telegram saying th a t h is s i s t e r Iydia is s ic k o r dead. (I# d la , a "hard and grey" woman twenty years o ld e r than i O ethln, seems to be Lawrence's mother — not merely In | name o n ly .) Sick with m alaria In "the nausea of the | t r o p i c s ," he w ill re tu r n home to Daybrook since t r a d i t i o n j i i i has I t th a t as long as a Day liv e s : "the floo ds s h a ll not j j cover the Vale, nor s h a ll they rid e over England com pletely ." 1 6 3 j 189 The w anderer's talism an during a l l the years and a l l the p laces has been a copy of a kind of " s e c re t family b lb le ." The Book of Days, b e a u tifu lly w ritte n by a six te e n th century a n c e sto r, promised the p o s s i b i li t y of a G reater Day - - opposed both to the " f a ta l" one of the i Indian past and the "fussy, busy le s s e r day of the white i : i i people." (pp. 782-8*0 He fin d s comfort In the assurance 1 ; j th a t ev e n tu a lly the " t a l l men" w ill remain alone In the land, when the " l i t t l e men" have died out. They w ill move deeper Into the G reater Day, r e jo ic in g a f t e r t h e i r f l i g h t of f e a r — "even as the fly in g f i s h , when he leaves the a i r and reco v ereth h is element In the depth, plunges and In v is ib ly r e j o i c e s ." (p. 7 8 5 ) The G reater Day Is th a t "deep element where death Is and Is n o t, and l i f e Is not a f le e in g away.” (p. 788) j Oethln Day's p hysical-p sy ch ic Journey through the tw ilig h t world of the " l i t t l e day of c i v i l i s a t i o n " takes him f i r s t from Oaxaca to the high p lateau and then south I again to Veracruz. When they a r riv e a t n i g h t f a l l , the i c ity looks "dish earten ed and tr o p ic a l . . . as If l i f e had 1 q u ie tly l e f t I t . " (p. 790) Acres of goods are p iled up on the docks w aitin g fo r a s tr i k e to end. And Oethln j 1 I sees something " s i n i s t e r " about the sun s e t t i n g over the w aters — the s a l t waters In which the n a tiv e s were s t i l l , 190 b aptized to C h r is tia n ity , and In which the s o c i a l i s t s b aptized themselves — "In mockery, perhaps" — Into "the mystery of f r u s t r a t i o n and revenge": I t was a p o in t where the wild primeval day of t h is co n tin en t met the busy white man's day, and the two annulled one a n o th er. The r e s u l t was a port of n u l l i t y , n ih ilism concrete and a c tu a l, c a llin g I I t s e l f the c i t y of the True C ross, (p. 790) | The next morning, Oethln Day s a i l s on one of the two i ships In the harbor - - a German passenger sh ip . Pew are on board. In the f i r s t - c l a s s saloon are two Danish merchants on t h e i r way back to Copenhagen, d eath ly sick of food-polsonlng and f u l l of business p r o je c ts . "Seven- ; teen souls" are In the seco n d -class saloon, Including the | fru g a l Day, who is determined not to become entrapped by I 1 ; the "mean day" of Mammon. An "uneasy" peace Is maln- ! ta ln ed among them: the fo u r s t i f f Englishmen, fiv e j S paniards, fiv e Oermans, a Cuban, and two Danes, who a c t as b u ffe rs between the Oermans and the o th e rs. Oethln Day spends most of h is day on the bowsprit [sl$i ■ looking Into the Oulf of Mexico to see the f ly in g f i s h . ' I j Lawrence d e sc rib e s those moments in passages of sheer d e lig h t: i i i i I All the long morning he would be th e re cu rled in t the wonder of t h i s g u lf of c r e a tio n , where the f ly in g fis h e s on tra n s lu c e n t wings swept In t h e i r e c s t a t i c clouds out of the w ater, In a t e r r o r th a t was b r i l l i a n t as Joy, In a Joy b r i l l i a n t with \ t e r r o r , with wings made of pure w ater flap p in g I 191 w i t h g r e a t s p e e d , a n d l o n g - s h a f t e d b o d i e s o f t r a n s l u c e n t s i l v e r l i k e s q u i r t s o f l i v i n g w a t e r , t h e r e I n a i r , b r i l l i a n t I n a i r , b e f o r e s u d d e n l y t h e y h a d d i s a p p e a r e d , a n d t h e b l u e s e a w a s t r e m b l i n g w i t h a d e l i c a t e f r a i l s u r f a c e o f g r e e n , t h e s t i l l s e a l a y o n e m o m e n t a h e a d , u n t o u c h e d , u n t o u c h e d s i n c e t i m e b e g a n , I n I t s w a t e r y l o v e l i n e s s . ( p . 793) i i < j L a w r e n c e h a d m a r v e l e d a t M e l v i l l e ' s a b i l i t y , c a l l i n g ^ i : h i m t h e " g r e a t e s t s e e r a n d p o e t o f t h e s e a , " a n d a m y s t i c I a n d a n I d e a l i s t . " 1 ^ L a w r e n c e h a d a l s o d e m o n s t r a t e d h l m - I s e l f , I n s u c h w o r k s a s S t . M a w r , a b l e " t o l o o k o v e r o u r h o r i z o n s . " I n t h a t w o r k h e h a d f o u n d t h e p e r f e c t c o n t r a s t f o r m a n ' s u n n a t u r a l " h e a p e d - u p c i v i l i z a t i o n " i n t h e p o r p o i s e s L o u a n d M r s . W i t t s e e a s t h e y m a k e t h e c r o s s i n g i f r o m C u b a t o T e x a s — p e r c e i v i n g I n t h e c r e a t u r e s " t h e ! 165 m a r v e l o u s b e a u t y a n d f a s c i n a t i o n o f n a t u r a l w i l d t h i n g s . " I n T h e P l y i n g F i s h , L a w r e n c e r e v i s i t s t h e H a v a n a o f S t . M a w r , u s i n g p r e c i s e l y t h e s a m e d a t a h e h a d u s e d I n t h a t b o o k t o e x c o r i a t e t h e r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s o f t h e M am m on c i v i l i z a t i o n . H e d e p i c t s c o n t e m p t u o u s l y t h e d r u n k e n N o r t h A m e r i c a n t o u r i s t s w h o w e a r b a d g e s w i t h t h e n a m e s o f t h e i r | h o t e l p r i n t e d o n t h e m s o t h a t t h e y c a n b e d e l i v e r e d s a f e l y | w h e n p i c k e d u p I n t h e r o a d s . 1 j W h e n t h e s h i p l e a v e s H a v a n a t h e n e x t m o r n i n g , t h e s u n ; : i | I s g o n e ; l i f e , t o o . " T h e A t l a n t i c w a s l i k e a c e m e t e r y , a n I e n d l e s s , I n f i n i t e c e m e t e r y o f g r e y n e s s , w h e r e t h e b r i g h t , 192 l o s t world of A tla n tis Is b u r le d ." 1^ w ithin an hour, the heavy seas have l e f t everyone d eath ly sick ; and the ship seems lik e "a plague s h ip ." The work ends ab ru p tly on the th i r d evening, with the ! ! | r a in beginning and motion subsiding o u ts id e . . . . But aboard, the "ship of fools" has I t s f u l l comple- ! I ' : ment to be taken to p o rt. Lawrence refu sed to do t h a t , I ! I to f i n is h the book. Perhaps th a t was because, In s p ite of ; the o p tim is tic views of some c r i t i c s , h e could not see a G reater Day on e a r th . Mrs. Brewster has d escrib ed an episode In G stelg In 1928. One afte rn o o n , "holding a l c h i l d 's copybook," he read to t h e i r group the u nfinished i ; I j novel. As he re ad , I t seemed to h e r, the work reached an i I In creasin g ly serene beauty. Then, he stopped suddenly, : and to ld them th a t the l a s t p a rt would d esc rib e reg en erate I ; man — "a r e a l l i f e In t h i s Garden of Eden." But when they asked what he would be l i k e , what he would do, Lawrence re p lie d only: "I Ju st don’t know."1^ i I t is not easy to b eliev e th a t Connie and Mellora 1 i j were the Adam and Eve of th a t new race of "regen erate men." i j Perhaps I t was Lawrence, h im self. With the ghost of Lydia j i | f i n a l l y ex o rc ise d , he could — of h is own v o litio n — decide th a t the only path was not th e " c i t y 's gold 193 phosphorescence," but the one In the d ir e c tio n of dark n e ss. There he could fin d the " v i t a l i t y " he sought. 1 9 * 1 N O T E S CHAPTER III 1. Let t i e ' s speech to George In The White Peacock, exp lain in g how death touching a p la n t "forces I t in to a passion o f flo w erin g ." (Carbondale and Edwards- v i l l e : Southern I l l i n o i s U niv ersity P re s s , 1 9 6 6) p . 35 2. Achsah Barlow B rew ste r's account o f Lawrence's v i s i t to her and her husband In Kandy, during which he made p a in fu l re v e la tio n s o f h is childhood to her. Quoted, Edward Nehls, D. H. Lawrence: A composite Biography (Madison: The U n iv ersity o f Wisconsin press, T55? J V 1 T 7 p - 1 2 6 . 3. May Chambers Holbrook, quoted Nehls, I I I , p. 5 6 8. 4. Nehls, I I , p. 126. 5. D. H. L a w r e n c e , P h o e n i x : The P o s t h u m o u s P a p e r s o f D. H. L a w r e n c e , e d . Edward McDonald ( N e w Y o r k : T h e Viking t r e s s , 1 9 3 6)> p. 136. 6. Lawrence said th a t when a c o l l i e r came up Into d ay lig h t and met with "cold u g lin ess and raw m aterialism ," i t " k ille d something In him, and In a sense sp o iled him as a man." Phoenix, p. 137* 7. J e s s ie Chambers Wood, the Miriam o f Sons and Lovers and the woman who launched Lawrence's c a re e r as a w r i t e r , said In a l e t t e r to Helen Corke In 1933 th a t when she reproached him fo r having Involved X In the "tan g le o f th e ir r e la tio n s h ip s , h is rep ly took her breath away. He s a id , she re p o rte d , "With should and ought I have nothing to do ." And, Mrs. Woods added: I f you w i l l think out the Im p licatio n s o f th a t statem ent you w i l l see what was the n atu re of D. H. L.*s bondage] he was the measure o f h is own un iv erse; h is own god — and a ls o M s own h e l l . " Quoted, Nehls, I I I , p. 4 7 9. 8 . R o b e r t K l d d e l l q u o t e d , H a r r y T . M o o r e , T h e I n t e l l i g e n t H e a r t ( N e w Y o r k : F a r r a r , S trau s and Young,' fS W )' / p T "2$5. 195 9* The I n t e l l i g e n t H eart, p. 97* 10. W itte r Bynner, Journey w ith Genius {New York: The John Day Company, 1 9 5 1) , p. ts. 11. With D. H. Lawrence In New Mexico, A Memoir of D. H. Lawrence (New York: Barnes & Noble, I n c . , 1956)» P* 8 8 * ( F ir s t published under the t i t l e o f A Poet and Two P a i n t e r s . ) 12. Nehls, I I , p. 57. 13. Nehls, I I I , p. 479* 14. D. H. Lawrence, The Complete Poems (London: Williams Helnesmann L td ., 1957), I I , 103. 15* Some c r i t i c s f e e l th a t the h e a lth c r i s i s he experienced In America and Mexico sharply changed nthe a t t i tu d e s o f sexual am bivalencen he expressed in e a r l i e r works. That Is because, they say, th a t In stead of the "usual d i s t r e s s over the sen su al weakness o f male c h a r a c te r s , who are dominated by agg ressiv e women, Lawrence d isp lay s a fa sc in a te d h o rro r as over-powered female c h a ra c te rs surren der themselves to sex u a lly v iru le n t m ales." David C av ltch . D. H. Lawrence and the New World (New York: Oxford U n iv e rsity t r e s s , i 969)» p. 150 16. "A utobiographical S k e tc h ," , S elected L ite ra ry C r i t i cism , ed. Anthony Beal (New York: The Viking P re s s , T955), P* 5. 17. (New York: The New American L ibrary o f World L ite r a tu r e , I n c . , i 9 6 0) , p. 4o6. L e tte r to G arnett, S elected L ite ra ry C ritic is m , p. 13* 18. Galus Glenn Atkins and C harles Samuel Braden, Procession o f the Gods (New York: Harper & B rothers* i94tJ), p . 4 9 . 1 9. Malcolm Lowry, Dark As the Grave Wherein My F riend Is Laid (P h ila d e lp h ia : J . B. L lp p ln co tt Company, FHJi. 196 20. The Labyrinth o f S o litu d e , tra n s . L y sander Kemp (New York: Grove P re ss, i n c . , 1961), pp. 66-7. 21. The Love E th ic of D. H. Lawrenoe (Bloomington: I n d i a n a U n i v e r s i t y ^ r e s s , 1902j , p. 3- 22. The Dark Sun. A Study o f D. H. Lawrence (New York: G. P. Putnam's S o n s, 1959]* P r e f a c e , n .p ag , (S p ilk a th in k s Lawrence l e s s a v i t a l i s t " than an " o r g a n i c i s t " s i n c e L aw ren ce's g o a l , he s a y s , i s “o r g a n ic w h o len e ss" and " th e o n ly m ajor s i n . . . the d e g r a d a tio n o r d e n i a l o f the o rg a n ic b e i n g ." S p i l k a , P- 9) 23. Phoenix, p. 734. 24. T in d a ll says th at Lawrence' b Second choice as "the world o f Egypt and Chaldea before 2000 B. C ., and f a l l i n g t h a t , he contented h im self with the v e s t i g e s o f glory which he discovered in the arch aic s o c ie tie s of E tru sc a n s, Hindus, A ztecs, and Mrs. Mabel Dodge Luhan's In d ia n s ." D. H. L a w r e n c e a n d S u s a n H i s C o w ( N e w Y o r k : C o l u m b i a U n i v e r s i t y p r e s s , 1 9 3 $ ) , p . 86. 2 5 . S tudies In C la ssic American L ite r a tu r e (Garden C ity : Doubleday & Company^Tnc. , 19^1), p. l*lo-49- 26. H. P . B la v a ts k y , The Key to Theosophy (London: The T h e o s o p h lc a l P u b lis h in g Company, L im ite d , 1889)> P. 19. 27. S ir James G. F ra z e r, The Golden Bough ( N e w York: The Macmllllan Company. l$ V lJ. Note p a r t i c u l a r l y such passages as t h i s : And the dim l i g h t of tr a d itio n re v eals a s im ila r union o f temporal and s p i r i t u a l power, o f ro y a l and p r i e s t l y d u tie s , in the kings of th a t d e l i g h t f u l region of C e n tra l America whose an cien t c a p i t a l , now burled under the rank growth of the tr o p ic a l f o r e s t , Is marked by the s t a t e l y and m ysterious ru in s o f Falenque." (p. 1 0) 2 8 . "New Mexico," Phoenix, pp. 144-45. 2 9 . (New York: Thomas y. Crowell Company, n . d . ) , p. v i l . 197 30. M e rrlld , p. 239* Lawrence c o n s is te n tly condones murder by in d iv id u a l judgment and in defense o f what J u lia n Moynahan, The Deed o f L ife (P rin ceto n : P rln c - ton U n iv ersity P re s s , 19t>3), c a l l s "reverence fo r l i f e . " Thus Moynahan defends H enry's R illin g o f Banford in "The Pox" on the grounds th a t Banford is ' d e f e c t i v e a n d d i s e a s e d ' " n o l i f e w e l l s u p i n h e r . " T h e r e f o r e , h e s a y s , " s h e m u s t b e d i s c a r d e d b e c a u s e t h e d i s e a s e I s c a t c h i n g . " ( p . 208) 31. The L e tte rs o f D. H. Lawrence, ed. by Aldous Huxley XNew York: The Viking P re s s , 1932), P • 237. 3 2 . R e b e c c a W e s t h a s s a i d o f L a w r e n c e ' s t r a v e l s t h a t t h e y w e r e " t h e J o u r n e y s t h a t m y s t i c s o f a c e r t a i n t y p e a l w a y s f o u n d n e c e s s a r y . . . L a w r e n c e t r a v e l e d , i t s e e m e d , t o g e t a c e r t a i n A p o c a l y p t i c v i s i o n o f m a n k i n d t h a t h e r e g i s t e r e d a g a i n a n d a g a i n a n d a g a i n , a l w a y s r i s i n g t o a p i t c h o f e c s t a t i c a g o n y . " Quoted, Harry T. Moore, The I n t e l l i g e n t Heart (Hew York: F a rra r, S trau s and Young, 195**)# p. 280. 3 3 . A r m l n A r n o l d , D . H . L a w r e n c e I n A m e r i c a ( L o n d o n : T h e L i n d e n P r e s s , 1958) , p . 1 5 . 3 U . P h o e n i x T w o ; U n c o l l e c t e d . U n p u b l i s h e d a n d O t h e r P r o s e W o r k s b y b . H . L a w r e n c e ( N e w Y o r k : T h e V i k i n g P r e s s , i g g g ) '; p . ~ 5 5 £ : ------------------------- 3 5 . T h e I n t e l l i g e n t H e a r t , p . 2 0 1 . 36. D u r i n g 1 9 2 0 , f o r e x a m p l e , h e w r o t e m a n y o f t h e B i r d s . B e a s t s a n d F l o w e r * p o e m s , a n d a l s o t h e T o r t o i s e p o e m s . T n J a n u a r y 1 9 ^ 1 h e w r o t e S e a a n d S a r d l n l a T I T T e w m o n t h s l a t e r , d u r i n g a t r i p t o B a d e n - B a d e n t o v i s i t F r i e d a ' s m o t h e r , h e w r o t e F a n t a s i a o f t h e U n c o n s c i o u s j I n J u l y a n d A u g a s t , h e f i n i s h e d A a r o n ' s R o d a n d b e g a n t o t r a n s l a t e t h e n o v e l s a n d t a l e s o r G i o v a n n i V a r g a . 37. T h e C o l l e c t e d L e t t e r s o f D . H . L a w r e n c e , e d . b y H a r r y M o o r e ( N e w Y o r k : T h e v i k i n g P r e s s , 1902) , p . 5 ^ 6 * 198 3 8 . Edward N ehls, D, H. Lawrence: A Composite Biography. I I , p. 79. 39. The I n t e l l i g e n t H eart, pp. 284-85. Moore says th at Mrs. S tern e had S f llle d Tony Luhan In to su bm itting to the c a l l i n g sessio n s a f t e r he expressed doubts th a t Lawrence would be "good” fo r Taos. 40. Lawrence flu c tu a te d w ild ly about both p la c e s; Ju st a few weeks before he and F rieda s a ile d fo r Kandy, he was w ritin g to the Brewsters th a t: "I have decided to go to Taos In New Mexico. There are In d ian s th e re , and an old sun-raaglc — And I b eliev e th at the clamorous fu tu re Is In the S t a t e s . I do not want peace nor beauty nor even freedom from p a in . I want to f ig h t and to f e e l new gods In the f l e s h ." C ollected L e tte rs ^ p. 6 8 l. 41. Nehls, I I , p. 184. 42. An I n te r e s tin g account of the re la tio n s h ip is given by F rieda Lawrence. "Not I . But the Wind . . . (New York: The Viking P r e s s T T ^ U ) , pp".' 135-38’ . 43- Knud M errlld , With D. H. Lawrence In New Mexico (New York: Barnes & Noble, I n c . , 19^5j * PP* 03-4. ( F i r s t published In 1939 by Viking under the t i t l e o f A Poet and Two P a in t e r s .) 44. Dr. Andrew Norland, who saw Lawrence fo r the f i r s t time In January 1930, two months before his d ea th , re p o rte d l a t e r th a t: " . . . although Lawrence had obviously been s u f f e r in g from pulmonary tu b e rc u lo sis fo r a very long time — probably 10 o r 15 years — he had e i t h e r never been p ro p erly advised about the treatm ent a r , much more l i k e l y , he had chosen to Ignore most o f the advice given w hile remembering a few unim portant d e t a i l s . N ehls, I I I , p. 424. 45. M e rrlld , p. 92. 46. W itte r Bynner, Journey w ith Genius (New York: The John Day Company^, 1951)* p. 47. Journey w ith Genius, p. 4. 199 48. Bynner r e l a t e s an episode th a t occurred In the sm all h o te l where the Lawrences had lodged in Mexico C ity . Watching F rieda p u ff on a c i g a r e t t e - - t i l t i n g h er head to ease her eye from watering* Lawrence "suddenly In the f u l l dinin g room rose and shouted — 'Take th a t thing out of your mouth. Take I t out I say, you s n i f f in g b i t c h 1." (p. 31) C arleton B eals, Fred Leighton, and o th ers who met them were shocked by h is behavior. 49. T. P h ilip T erry , T e rry *8 Guide to Mexico (Boston: Houghton M ifflin Company, p. 30eix. 5 0 . L ife with D. H. Lawrence In New Mexico, p. 274. 51. Journey vilth Genius, pp. 193-95. 52. Jeanne d 'O rg e 's account o f the e c lip s e , "Lawrence the W ayfarer," v/hlch appeared In Supplement to The C a rm e lite ■ 1930* quoted M errlld , p. 31b. 53* K atherine P ric h a rd , a frie n d of M ollte S k in n e r's p ro te s te d the notion th a t Lawrence had c o n trib u te d g r e a tly to the book since he "knew nothing" o f those days in th a t c o n tin e n t, she s a id . What he did c o n trib u te because o f his "preoccupation w ith d eath, the dark gods, sex ual m alevolence, she f e l t , marred the l a s t two c h a p te rs . Nehls, I I , p. 2 7 6 . 54. M errlld , p. 343- 55- Nehls, I I . p. 282, 5 6 . Reminiscences o f D. H. Lawrence. ^Kew York* Henry Holt and company, 19331* PP- 104 • 57. Lawrence and B r e t t : A F riendship (P h ila d e lp h ia : JV B. Lipplncotb Company, I&3 3 ), p. 139. 5 8 . A fte r Frieda had her famous " c u ra te -s p in s te r" row w ith Dorothy B r e t t , Lawrence wrote a note to the l a t t e r in d ic a tin g th a t he agreed: "And a word about f rie n d s h ip . F riendship between a man and a woman, as a thing o f f i r s t Importance to e i t h e r , Is Im possible; and I know I t . We are c re a tu re s o f two halves 1 s p i r i t u a l and sen su al — and each h a lf is as Im portant as the o th e r. Any r e la tio n based on the one h a l f - - say the d e lic a te s p i r i t u a l h a lf 200 alone — in e v ita b ly brings re v u lsio n and b e tra y a l. I t Is a h alfn ess o r p a r tn e s s , which causes Judas . . . " Quoted, Nehls, I I , p. 392. 59* "Not I , But the Wind . . p. 149. 60. L e tte r to G. R. G. Conway, quoted The I n t e l l i g e n t H eart, p. 342. 6 1. (New York: Oxford U n iv ersity P re s s , 1969)# p. 190* 62. D. H . L a w r e n c e , T h e C o m p l e t e P o e m s ( L o n d o n : William H e l n e m a n n L t d . , 1957)# III# pp. 162- 6 6 . 6 3 . Frieda Lawrenc e « The Memoirs ^nd Correspondence, ed. by E. w. Wedlock, J r . (Sew York: A lfred A. fcnopf# 1 9 6 4) , p. 2 3 8. 64. L . D . C l a r k , D a r k N i g h t o f t he B o d y ( A u s t i n : U n i v e r s i t y o f T e x a s p r e s s , 19t>4), p. 13* 6 5 . S t . Mawr (New York: A lfred A. Knopf, I n c . , 1925)# p. 1 2 . 6 6 . D. H. Lawrence: N o v elist (London: Chat to & WIndus. T 955j; pT-sssr:------------------------- 6 7 . The Complete S hort S to rie s (London: William flfelnemann, L td ., 19&3J, Vol. 2, p. 487. 6 8 . The Deed o f L ife . I n t r . , p. x lv . 6 9 . Mornings In Mexico (New Y 6 rk: A lfred A. Knopf# I n c ., l# ? 7 ;, p. 3 . 70. West Commented p o in te d ly : "Make no m istake, I t was the h o te l th at overlooked the Arno# not Lawrence. His room was one o f the cheaper ones a t the back. His sense o f g u i l t which scourged him p e rp e tu a lly , which was the motlve-power Of h is g enius, sin ce I t made him Inqu ire what s in I t was which he and a l l mankind have on th e ir co n scien ces, forbade him e i t h e r enjoying comfort or having the mfnej to pay fo r i t l e s t he should weaken." Quoted, Nehls, I I , p. 6 2 . 71. L o r e n s o In S e a r c h o f t h e Sun ( N e w Y o r k : B o o k m a n A s s o c i a t e s , I n c . , 1 9 5 3 ) , P* 98. 201 72. P a tte rn s o f C u l t u r e (New York: The New American L ib rary o f World L I t e r a t a r e , I n c . , 1950), p. 85. 73* Dark Night o f the Body, p. 48. 74. Mornings In Mexico, p. 10. 75. D. H. Lawrence (New York: Arco P ub lish in g Company, I n c . , 1 ^ 0 ) , p. 87. 76. D. H. Lawrence: N o v e lis t, p. 17. 77. N e h l s , 1, p. 274. 7 8 . N e h l B , I I , p. 371. 79. D. H. Lawrence and the New World, p. 11. 8 0 . The Deed o f L ife , p. 1 1 3. 81. Beyond the Mexlque Bay, p. 259* 82. The Plumed S erp en t. I n t r o . , p. x iv . 8 3 . The Dark Sun, pp. 121-22. 84. Review o f Mornings In Mexico. Saturday Review of L i t e r a t u r e . August 57. 1927* Quoted Nehls, I I , p. 229- 8 5 . Quoted, Dark Night o f the Body, p. 12. 86. L e tte r from Dr. Gamlo to N ehls, August 3, 1956; Nehls, I I , p. 3 6 8. 8 7 . The C o llected L e tte rs o f D. H. Lawrence, ed. by Harry Moore (New York: The v ik in g !press, 1 9 0 2) , p. 648. 88. Journey w ith Genius, p. 204. Frieda wrote a b i t t e r p r o te s t to w illiam York T in d a ll in September 1939# a f t e r read ing D. H. Lawrence and Susan His Cow. That book, Tedlock sa y s, aroused F rie d a ’s defensive anger as perhaps no o th e r o f the many books about Lawrence h a s ." F rieda Lawrenee. The Memoirs and Correspondence p . 2 76:----------------------------------- *------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ 8 9 . The Plumed S erp e n t, p. 5 1 . 202 90. According to C lark, the holograph m anuscript from which the ty p e s c rip t o f the Oaxaca version was made d i f f e r s co n sid erab ly from the l a t t e r , which Is a t the U n iv ersity o f Texas. That, too, may con tain as the Chapala version o f The Plumed Serpent (a t Harvard U n iv ersity L ibrary) does — an account o f the m ythical Journey o f a soul through the sp heres. That Journey, m issing from the f i n a l v e rsio n , occupies a prominent place In the Chapala v ersio n . Dark Klght of the Body, p . 46, 91. L e tte r to J . M. Murry from Cornwall, C o llected L e tte r s , p. 413. 92. "The Two P r i n c ip l e s ," Phoenix Two, co n tain s perhaps the most complete statem ent o r h is philosophy o f being. In th a t he I n s i s t s th a t: "There c e r t a in ly does e x i s t a s u b tle and complex sympathy, c o r r e s pondence, between the plasm o f the human body, which Is i d e n tic a l w ith the prim ary human psyche, and the m a te ria l elements o u ts id e . The primary human psyche Is a complex plaBm, which q u iv e rs, sen se-co n sclo as, in c o n ta c t w ith the circumambient cosmos. Our plasmlc psyche Is r a d io - a c tiv e , connecting w ith a l l th in g s , and has a first-kno w ledge of a l l th in g s ." (p. 277 93. C ollected L e t t e r s , pp. 281-82. 94. S tu dies In C la ssic American L i te r a t u r e , p. 145. In The plumed Serpent LawrencT T rie d to re c re a te In modern d ress the an c ie n t gods o f Mexico: G u etz alco atl H u ltz llo p o c h tll, and — in the form of Kate — C h a lc h lh u ltllc u e , the goddess o f ra in and m o istu re, the Lady o f the Emerald Robe, He was deeply Indebted to Lewis Spence fo r h is concept of the Aztec d e i t i e s , and he was a lso deeply Indebted to Spence fo r h is comments on "The Aztec C h a ra c te r," which suggested In an almost uncanny way Lawrence's p o r t r a i t o f C lprlano: "The fe a tu re s o f the Aztecs as rep resented In the vario us Mexican p a in tin g s are ty p ic a lly In d ia n , and argue a n orth ern o r ig in . The race was, and I s , o f average h e ig h t, and the skin is of a dark brown hue. The Mexican Is grave, t a c i t u r n , and m elancholic, w ith a deeply rooted love o f the m ysterious, slow to anger, y e t almost Inhuman In the violence o f h is passions when aroused. He Is u su ally g if te d w ith a l o g ic a l mind, quickness o f apprehension, and 203 an a b i l i t y to regard the s u b tle sid e o f things w ith g re a t n ic e ty . . . He had a r e a l a f f e c tio n fo r the b e a u tif u l in nature and a p assion fo r flo w e rs, but the Aztec music lacked g a ie ty , and the n a tio n a l amusements were too o fte n of a gloomy and ferociou s c h a r a c te r ." (Myths o f Mexico and Peru, pp, 27-28.) 95- D. H. Lawrence and the New World, p. 40. 9 6 . The Dark Sun, p. 15. 97- Lawrence uses th a t word not merely as a phrase fo r lon ely and u seless o ld women; i t is h is image fo r s t e r i l i t y o f soul since he does conceive of the soul as a woman. 9 8 . (London: George A llen & Unwin, L td ., 1959)* p. 129. 9 9 . The b lrd -s e rp e n t d u a lity o f H u ltz llo p o c h tll was a ls o suggested to Lawrence by Spence. In r e f e r r in g to Q u e tz a lo c o a tl, he says th a t American mythology haB many s im ila r cases where the conception o f b ird and serp en t have been u n ifie d . " H u ltz llo p o c h tll Is undoubtedly one o f th ese. W e aay reg ard him as a god the prim ary conception o f whom aro se from the idea o f the s e rp e n t, the symbol o f w arlik e wisdom and might, the symbol o f the w a r r io r 's d a rt or sp e a r, and the humming-bird, the harb in g er o f summer, type o f the season when the snake o r lig h te n in g god has power over the c ro p s ." Mytha o f Mexico and Peru, p . 73 100. Lawrence's d e f in itio n s ta te d in his d isc u ssio n o f the L eathersto cklng T'-les of Cooper, S tudies in C la ssic American L i t e r a t u r e , p. 73* 101. The Dark Sun, p. 4 l. 102. Mark S p ilk a , The Love E th ic o f D. H. Lawrence, p. 208 103. Richard A ldington sa id th a t Lawrence despised S ocialism as being vtoo c o n se rv ativ e and o rg a n iz e d ." He added: "He was a tru e A narchist ( t h is Lawrence denied, but I t was t r u e ) , liv in g o u tsid e human s o c ie ty , r e je c t in g a l l i t s v a lu e s, f i e r c e l y con c e n tra te d on h is own v alu es. Those who thought him a danger to s o c ia l o rd er would be r i g h t i f there were the s l i g h t e s t chance of any co n sid erab le number 204 o f people being made to th in k by a s e t o f unpopular novels and f r e e verse poems. Lawrence was the champion o f the In d iv id u a l in h is age-long s tru g g le a g a in st c o lle c tiv e try a n n le s ," Quoted. N ehls, I I I , p. 458. 104. " A ris to c ra c y ," R e fle c tio n s on the Death of a Forcu- £ ln ^ (B lo o m in g to n : Indiana^ U n iv e rsity t r e s s , 19f c > 3 ), 1 0 5. Lawrence In a l e t t e r from Cornwall, December 20, 1916. Quoted Nehls, I , p. 409. 106. L e tte r to J . M. Murry from Oaxaca, November 15# 1924. C o llected L e t te r s , p. 6 3 1. 107. S tu d ies In C la ssic American L i t e r a t u r e , p. 17. 108. The Rainbow. 109. N ehls, I , p. 375. 110. The Love E th ic o f D. H. Lawrence, p. 1 5 9. Murry's a t t i t u d e toward the su b je c t discussed In The I n t e l l i g e n t H eart, p . 216. 111. Fhoenjjc Two, p. 107. Lawrence's views o f male love seem to have changed between the e a rly novels and The Plumed Serpen t . For example, he says in the posthumously published "Preface to Women In Love:" " th is was the one and only s e c r e t he (B lrkin) kept to h im se lf, th is s e c r e t o f h is p a ssio n a te and sudden, spasmodic a f f i n i t y fo r men he saw. He kept th is s e c re t even from h im self. He knew what he f e l t , but he always kept the knowledge a t bay. His a p r i o r i were: "I should not f e e l l i k e t h i s , ' and ' I t Is the ultim ate mark o f my own d e fic ie n c y , th at I f e e l lik e t h i s . ' " I h Q erald, B lrk in found one o f the two c la s s e s o f men "he apprehended In to x ic a tln g ly In his blood • . . w h lte-sk ln n ed , keen-limbed men . . . lik e c r y s t a l s , I s o la te d , I n d i v i d u a l ." (p. 1 0 5) C lprlano exem plifies the o th e r: "men w ith dark eyes th a t one can e n te r and plunge In to , bathe In , as In a liq u id d arkn ess, d ark -skinn ed, su p p le, n lg h t- sm elllng men, who are the liv in g substance of the v isc o u s, u n iv e rsa l heavy d a rk n e ss." (p. 1 0 5) 205 112. Essay on Hawthorne, S tudies In C laaalc American L i t e r a t u r e , p. 95. 113. L e tte r to Harry Crosby, August, 1928, re p rin te d S elected L ite ra ry C r itic is m , p. 25. 114. Essay on Poe, S tudies in C lassic American L i t e r a t u r e , p. 115. "A Propos of Lady C h a tte r le y ’s Lover," Phoenix Two, p. 493. 116. Women In Love, p. 365. 117. "The Two P r in c ip le s ," Phoenix Two, p. 233. 118. Burning W ater, p. 144. 119. Women In Love, p. 218. 120. Burning W ater, p. 6 7 , 121. The Love E thic of D. H. Lawrence, p. 41. 206 122 * D. H. Lawrence and the New World. p * 57 • 123. L e tte r to D. V. L ederhandler, September 12, 1929; S elected L ite ra ry C ritic is m , p. 2 5 . 124. "The Dragon of the Apocalypse by F rederick C a r te r ," Phoenix, p. 2 9 6. (This essay , purp o rted ly an •Introduction* to C arter*s book, was never published as such. Lawrence had been deeply In te re s te d in C a r t e l s drawings; and had agreed..to c o lla b o ra te In a study o f the Apocalypse, The "In tro d u ctio n " was f i r s t published as an a r t i c l e four months a f t e r Lawrence fs death, appearing In the London Mercur.v.) 125. See Preface to F an tasia of the Unconscious. 126. The source o f this b e l i e f , according to T in d a ll, was James N. Pryse*s The Apocalypse U nsealed. which Lawrence had read. From th a t he a ls o derived the notion o f the c o lled serpent o f e l e c t r i c a l l i f e force which l i e s In the in d iv id u a l and can be re le a s e d . D. H. Lawrence and Susan His Cow, p. 1 5 0. 1 2 7. Dark Night o f the Body* p. 80. 123, The Gods of Mexico, p. 110. 129. S tu d ies In C lassic American L ite r a tu r e , pp. 157-58. 130. The Dark Sun, p. 141. 131. D. H. Lawrence; N ov elist , p. 275* Leavis fe e ls th a t " I t succeeds supremely In something th a t The Plumed Serpent f a l l s In. I t Imagines the old pagan Mexican r e lig io n as something r e a l and liv in g ; liv in g enough for I t s devotees to e n te r ta in the confident hope of reconquering M exico." (p. 273) 132. The a r t i c l e , which appeared In the New York Times Magazine. December 24, 1922, quoted~B. H. Lawrence an3 the New World, p. 100. 133* The Golden Bough, p. 438. 134. The Pods o f Mexico, p. 77. 135* "New Mexico," Phoenix, p. 143. 207 136. Myths o f Mexico and Peru, pp. 24-25. Spence had emphasised the d i f f i c u l t y In attem pting to sep a rate people and p la c e . He says th a t the "present-day Pueblo Indians dw elling to the n o rth of Mexico most probably possess a leaven o f Nahua b lood." And Spence a s s e r ts th at the c l i f f dw ellings in Chihuahua correspond tn many re sp e c ts to the c l i f f dw ellings o f the Pueblo region - - th at they "may be the ru in s o f dw ellings erected e i t h e r by the e a rly Nahua o r by some of the peoples r e l a t i v e . , . to them." 137* Journey w ith Genius, p. 191. 138. The Complete Short S t o r i e s . I I , p. 546. 139* Lawrence and B r e tt: A F rien d sh ip , pp. 149-52. 140. Lorenzo In Taos, pp. 208-10. 141. Lawrence had w ritte n from G udalajara on November 10, 1923 to K otellansky: "Mexico Is s t i l l very a t t r a c tiv e and a very good place to liv e In: I t Is not tame. Sometimes here In G uadalajara one sees the w ild G u lch ilote (Hulchol) In d ia n s , with th e ir bows and arrows and hardly any c lo th in g . They look so queer, lik e animals from another w orld, in the Plaza li s te n in g to the band . . . " Nehls, I I , p. 279* 342. T e rry !s Mexico, p. 59* 143. I t has been suggested th a t Don Ramfin was Jos£ Vasconcelos, C lprlano a Mexican g e n e ra l, Kate an up-dated version o f M me. Calderon de la Barca, fo r in sta n c e . The only c h a ra c te r fo r whom there seems to be any s u b s t a n t ia l foundation in fa c t Is E th e l Cane In None of T h a t," th at savage c a r ic a tu r e o f Mabel Dodge Luhan. In name, the mother o f the heroine o f S t. Mawr Is Nina W itt, "age unknown, a m ul11 -m llllo n -d o llar-B o cle ty - b e lie from B u ffalo , (who) was a clo se frie n d o f M abel's. Through her she had met the Lawrence's many times and was w ell acquainted with them." (M errlld , p. 118.) In s p i r i t , o f co u rse , Lawrence-Clprlano was the Aztec d e ity In whom* the an cien t Mexicans I l l u s t r a t e d "The m ystic p rin c ip le o f in te g ra tio n In to a g re a t whole, the p r in c ip le being rep resen ted by a s o la r being who fed on m ortal blood." (Burning W ater, p. 2 9 ) 208 344. "The Woman Who Rode Away." The Com plete S h o rt S t o r i e s , I I , pp. 246-47. 145* S tudies In C lassic American L i t e r a t u r e , p. 173. 146. 'N o te/' The Complete Poems, I , p. xx x v il. 147. In 1913* Pound was I n s is tin g with c h a r a c t e r is t i c enthusiasm th a t u n less Lawrence's Love Poems and Others was awarded th e Pollgnac p r is e , "th ere w ill be due cause f o r scan d al." His review In H a rrie t Monroe's P o etry , July 1913, quoted, D. H. Lawrence and America, p . 16♦ 148. The I n t e l l i g e n t H e a rt, p. 1 6 7. 149. L e tte r dated November 19, 1913. S elected L ite ra ry C r itic is m , p. 79. 150. The Complete Poems, I , p. 24 l. 151. Harry T. Moore says of th a t volume: "His poetry was now of a d i f f e r e n t te x tu r e , f r e e r and more v o l a t i l e , f u l l of rhythms th a t were more c o n v e rsatio n al than b efo re, y e t w ithout s a c r i f i c e of good lin e s and liv in g Images. The Influence of Whitman Is evident from the personal opening of the firm poem, * * Pome g ra n a te " to the l a s t Item in the c o lle c tio n , '"The American Eagle,** w ritte n soon a f t e r Lawrence's a r r i v a l In Mexico In 1923. . . . " The Life and Works of D. H. Lawrence, p. 1 9 6. Not a l T c r i t i c s compared Lawrence ravorably with Whitman. W itter Bynner chides Lawrence fo r h is " c a lc u la tio n ," saying: "There was seldom the rounding flow of the chords of Whitman, which he took fo r a model, but could not match." Journey with Genius, p. 321. 152. The Complete Poems, n , p. 104. 153. 'Hymns In a Man's L ife ," Assorted A rtic le s (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930), p. "V ST . 154. Richard Aldington sa id : "A fter he l e f t Taormina he seems to have w ritte n only a h an d fu ll of poems u n t i l he began to w rite P a n sie s . And th a t book cannot have been s ta r te d before October 1928." "Note," The Complete Poems, H I . p. x l . r ~ i \ : 1 5 5. i 1 5 6. 1 5 7. 158. 153. 1 6 0. 1 6 1. 1 6 2. 1 6 3. 164. 165. 166. 1 6 7. 1 6 8. 1 6 9. 209 (New York: The John Day Company, 1946), p. 19. F ir e f ly In the Night (New York: Grove Preas, I n c ., 1 9 5 9 P . ^ 5 . The Winged S e rp e n t, p. 113. D. H. Lawrence: N o v e lla t, p. 99. The Deed of L if e , pp. 51-2. The Complete Short S t o r i e s . I I , p. 546. The Complete Poema, I I I , p. l4o. The Co lle c te d Eaaaya of K atherine Anne P o rter (New York: D elacorte P ress, 197^), p. 4 2 3 . The F lying F is h , Phoenix, p. 7 8 1. S tudies In C laaalc American L i t e r a t u r e , p. 145. S t. Mawr, p. 179. S t. Mawr, p. 179; The F lying F is h , p. 796. The F lying F la h , p. 797. Cavltch aays th a t the work shows how Lawrence had "cut h is psychic lo s s e s , and h is soul rose buoyantly with a new s e l f - lo v e ." D. H. Lawrence and the New World, p. 190. Edward D. McDonald's introduction* to Phoenix a ls o s tr e s s e s the re le a s e and r e l i e f expressed In the "matchless d e s c rip tio n s of e a r th , sea, sky, and the liv in g th in g s which Inhabit them." (p. x x v li) Quoted, In tro d u c tio n to Phoenix, pp. xxvl-11. CHAPTER IV KATHERINE ANNE PORTER'S APOCALYPTIC IRONY 2 1 0 211 S u p e r f i c ia ll y , few w rite rs seem to be more remote than D. H. Lawrence and K atherine Anne P o rte r. He Is o fte n h y s t e r i c a l, u n in h ib ite d , v u lg ar; she Is always p re c is e , c o n tro lle d , e le g a n t. Lawrence Is poetry and fundam entalist preaching; P o rte r Is prose and hum anistic teaching. He would have d e te s te d her knowingness: she did despise h is lo u tis h n e s s . She could to le r a te a b e rran t behavior In l i f e , as the record o f h er frie n d sh ip w ith Hart Crane In Mexico in d ic a te s . But Crane, "poor . . . doomed" man th a t he was, had a sense o f humorl and was, h is c lo s e s t frie n d s have i n s i s te d , "a tru ly c i v i l i s e d _o man. That Lawrence — as a man and as an a r t i s t — i lacked both humor and c i v i l i t y caused her to a tta c k him s h a r p l y . ^ Her standards in both had been s e t e a rly by the remarkable grandmother who brought up the P o rte r c h ild re n . She had d e a lt with them s e v e re ly , " lik e an animal t r a i n e r ," when she found them q u a rre lin g : I t was "v u lg a r," she s a id , and fo r her th at word connoted a p e c u lia r ly d e te s ta b le form o f Im m orality, th a t Is to say, bad manners. In a p p ro p riate conduct was bad manners, bad manners were bad m orals, and bad morals led to bad manners, and there you were, ringed w ith f i r e , and no way o u t . 4 N ev erth eless, d e sp ite Lawrence's bad manners, P o rte r rushed to defend him from a tta c k s lik e that of 212 T. S. E l i o t , who had charged him w ith being one of the "untrained" minds, a man o f "d ia b o lic ten d en c ie s."^ Of th a t, she wrote contemptuously: U ntrained minds have always been a nuisance to the m ilita ry p o lice o f orthodoxy. God- in to x ic a te d mystics and untidy s a i n t s , with only a white b lase o f divine love where th e ir minds should have been, are p e rp e tu a lly c re a tin g almost as much d iso rd e r w ithin the law as o u tsid e i t . To have a train ed mind Is no guarantee a t a l l th at the possessor Is going to walk I n f a l li b l y In the path of v ir tu e , though he hard ly f a l l s in the l e t t e r o f the law. S t. Joan o f Arc and S t. Francis in th e ir own ways have had something to say about th a t. (p. 7) What she defended in Lawrence e s s e n t i a l l y was the profound r e lig io u s sense they shared. Both of them had what P o r te r , c u rio u sly enough, c a lle d a "blood-knowledge" of d efeat and p riv a tio n .^ Yet in the manner of se c u la r s a in ts they waged a l i f e - l o n g stru g g le a g a in st Mammonlsm, m aterialism , and the e x p lo ita tio n and co rru p tio n o f the in d iv id u a l by re lig io u s and s o c ia l I n s t i t u t i o n s . Both were lif e lo n g p r a c titio n e r s o f true d is s e n t, re fu sin g to hew the lin e a r t i s t i c a l l y o r p o l i t i c a l l y , seeking In t h e i r various ways the " p u r if ic a tio n " of so c ie ty through the r e in te g r a tio n o f man . . . although the passion fo r reform was, in her ca se , supplemented by compassion. Both o f them were haunted by a need to come to terms with e v i l , r e a liz in g lik e Thomas Hardy, whom they both 213 admired, th a t In human nature "th ere la a deep place . . . where the mind does not go, where the blind monsters sleep and wake, war among them selves, and feed upon d e a th ."? Both of them were obsessed w ith death; and fo r both th at 'd e e p e s t1 p la c e , Mexico, was a c re a tiv e fo rc e . G eographically, I t was a lik e ly place fo r K atherine ! Anne P o rte r to launch the symbolic qu est. Born in Indian ft O ' Creek, Texas, Mexico was her " fa m ilia r c o u n tr y .H e r fa th e r had liv e d p a rt of h is youth there and l a t e r told j h is c h ild re n "enchanting s t o r i e s " o f th is l i f e th ere; co nseq uen tly , "the land did not seem stran g e to me even a t my f i r s t s ig h t o f I t . " (p. 355) She spoke and read Spanish w e ll. She had a profound sympathy with l i f e ' s v ictim s, and Mexico appears to anyone o f such sympathies the n a tu ra l h a b ita t o f l i f e ' s v i c t i m s . ^ For them, the h e a rt must burn, the hands and mind must a c t. She s e t fo rth that view e x p l l c lt y In response to E l i o t 's charge th a t Thomas H ardy's f a i l u r e to b eliev e In O rig in a l Sin w ithin the orthodox framework had had a " c rip p lin g " e f f e c t on his w ritin g ; As to (Hardy) h im self, in h is personal l i f e , he had a Franciscan tenderness In regard to c h ild re n , anim als, la b o re rs , the poor, the mad, the in s u lte d and In ju re d . He su ffe re d h o rro r and Indignation a t human I n j u s t i c e , more e s p e c ia lly a t th a t kind committed by entrenched a u th o rity and power upon the h e lp le s s . In middle age he remembered and recorded an e a rly shock he received on hearing t h a t , in his neighborhood* a young boy* a farm laborer* was found dead of sheer s ta rv a tio n in the f r u i t f u l f i e l d he had worked to c u l t i v a t e . When he was planning The Dynasts, he wrote In h is notebook: "The human race Is to be shown as one g reat net-work or tis s u e which quivers In every p a rt when one point Is shaken* lik e a s p id e r 's web I f touched. For Hardy* the death of that boy was a blow that s e t the whole g re a t web trem bling; and a l l man kind received a la s t i n g wound. Here was a human f a te fo r which human a c ts were responsible* and i t would not serve Hardy a t a l l to put the blame on O rig in a l Sin* o r the In scru tab le decrees of Divine Providence* o r any o th e r o f the manifold devices fo r not l e t t i n g o n e se lf be too uncomfortable a t the sp e c ta c le o f merely human s u f f e r i n g .10 Like Hardy* P o rte r believed th at although human nature is "not grounded In common sense*” nonetheless* "with a g re a t d eal of common sense . . . man could make the e a rth a more endurable place fo r him self I f he would." (P. 9) I t is not easy to t e l l when she f i r s t f e l t the "g reat web" trem ble. P o rte r w rites p rim arily about P o rte r, but on v i t a l s t a t i s t i c s and o th e r d ata she is not always a r e l i a b l e guide. However* I t is p o ssib le to assume th at she f e l t I t a t any e a rly age sin ce she has w ritte n : I have not much I n t e r e s t in anyone's personal h is to r y a f t e r the tenth year* not even my own. Whatever one was going to be was a l l prepared before th a t. The r e s t Is merely confirm ation* extension* development. Childhood Is the f ie r y furnace In which we are melted down to e s s e n t i a ls and th a t e s s e n t i a l shaped fo r good.11 215 Her own childhood was ap p aren tly a d i f f i c u l t one. A fte r the death o f h er mother In 1 8 9 2, the fam ily moved to Kyle, Texas; then, a f t e r her grandmother died In 1901, they went to San Antonio. Like Miranda, Katherine Anne was sen t to a C atholic boarding school. At the age of s ix te e n , she ran away to be m arried; three years l a t e r , she obtained a divorce. c Her re a c tio n s may have been those of Miranda: She did not want any more t ie s w ith th is house, she was going to leave I t , and she was not going back to her husband's fam ily e i t h e r . She would have no more bonds th a t smothered h er In love and h a tre d . She knew now why she had run away In m arriage, and she was not going to sta y In any p la c e , with anyone, th at threatened to fo rb id her making her own d is c o v e rie s , th a t sa id "Ho" to h e r . 13 Mexico seems to have o ffe re d the p o s s i b i l i t y o f making her own d isc o v e rie s and shaping a c h a o tic universe In to "a more endurable p la c e ." During her f i r s t t r i p th e re , a t the time of the Madero R evolution, she had watched a s t r e e t b a t t l e between the M aderlstas and the F ederal troops from a c a th e d ra l window, screened by a vine heavy with tiny grapes. A fte r the shooting stopped, the old Indian woman who had been standin g s i l e n t beside h e r , turned and spoke as the corpses were being p ile d up In the plaza fo r burning: 216 " i t la a l l a g re a t tro u b le now, but I t la fo r the aake of happlneaa to come." She crossed h e r s e l f , and 1 mistook; h er meaning. "In heaven?" I asked. Her scorn was sp len d id . "No, on e a rth . Happiness fo r men, not fo r angels: I t took some years before fe e lin g was tra n s la te d ; In to a c tio n , during which she worked as a r e p o rte r and i ! became Involved In p o l i t i c a l movements. A fte r the f i r s t I d iv o rc e , she went to Chicago, where she was almost ■ d iv e rte d from Journalism by a movie o f f e r . ^5 According to her own r e p o r t, when the war broke out she return ed home to earn a liv in g sin g in g S c o ttis h b allad s In costume In Texas and L ouisiana. In 1917* she got a Job as a re p o rte r on The C r i t i c » a weekly ta b lo id In Port Worth which was devoted to p o l i t i c s , drama, b u sin e ss, and lo c a l news. There, a p p a re n tly , she experienced the I lln e s s and the I l l - f a t e d love a f f a i r with "Adam" which are described - - a g a in s t the newspaper background - - In th a t most moving s to r y , "Pale Horse, Pale R id er." When she recovered, she went f i r s t to Denver as a re p o rte r on the Rocky Mountain News and then to New York, where she liv ed In the V illag e earnin g her way as a ghost w r ite r . Her f i r s t book, My Chinese Marriage by "M.F.T." Is a legacy o f those d a y s .3-6 Presumably more d i r e c tl y h er own was the s to ry o f the nameless heroine of "T h eft", th at j d is illu s io n e d w r ite r who f i n a l l y r e a liz e d : "I was rig h t 217 not to be a f r a id o f any t h i e f but m yself, who w ill end h17 by leav ing me nothing, ' Her l i f e in Greenwich V illag e helped to persuade her th a t Mexico, h er " fa m ilia r c o u n try ," was her r i g h t f u l p la c e . J o s / Clemente Orozco and o th e r Mexican a r t i s t s in e x ile in New York had generated In tense excitem ent w ith t h e i r m anifestoes and proclam ations a s s e r tin g th at the Obregon re v o lu tio n was the beginning of a new day — a " g re a te r day" th at would make p o ssib le the reg en eratio n of man. She went to w itness the rev o lu tio n in 1920 — "the ! I most m arvelous, n a tu r a l, spontaneous experience of my n i l i f e . . . I t was a l i v e , but death was in I t . And so, as she has remembered, "was life ." * ® i j She return ed b r ie f ly to Fort Worth to w rite her i | impress ionsj and in 1922 she went back to stay fo r most ( f o f a decade, w ith o ccasio n al tr ip s to New O rleans, New York, and o th e r p a rts o f the United S ta te s . I For an adventurous and re v o lu tio n a ry p o l i t i c a l i d e a l i s t , I t was the best o f places and the best o f times — o r so I t seemed during those e a rly y ea rs. By I the end o f 1922, th at raped and Impoverished country had become one o f the w o rld 's lead in g a r t c e n te r s , riv a le d only by P a ris . Diego Rivera had retu rn ed from France, David A lfaro S lq u lero s from Spain, J o s /C le m e n te Orozco 218 from the United S ta te s . Obregon's f a il u r e s were many and i m assive. But he must be c re d ite d w ith a t l e a s t one ! ! d az zlin g triumph. Most h is to r ia n s agree with Lesley Byrd ! Simpson th at h is "most s o lid accom plishm ent"^ was the appointment o f Jose7 Vasconcelos, a lead e r o f the student re b e llio n s a g a in st P o r f lr lo Diaz who had developed during his e x ile In Spain a m y stical f a i t h In a r t , l i t e r a c y , and | | s u ffra g e as the remedy fo r Mexico's I l l s . (Even D. H. Lawrence, who scorned p o l i t i c a l answers and despised the j "propaganda" a r t o f R ivera and the o th e r s , acknowledged the s ta tu r e o f Vasconcelos. D espite h is personal fury over V asconcelos' c a n c e llin g a luncheon engagement, Lawrence used him a t l e a s t as a model fo r Don Ramon in The Plumed S e rp e n t. ) He sent " c u ltu r a l m issions" by b o at, by burro, by c a r , and by horse to the f a r th e s t v illa g e s In the country to teach the In d ia n s, w ith le c t u r e s , movies, p ic tu r e s , and recordings th at Mexico was t h e ir s . The w alls of pu blic b u ild in g s were turned over to a r t i s t s to d ep ict a l l e g o r i c a l messages o f p a trio tis m . During the f i r s t years of V asconcelos' m in istry " v i r t u a l ly every a r t i s t In Mexico was on the p a y ro ll o f the Education D epartm ent."20 A r t i s t s from o th e r places a rriv e d to put th e ir ta le n ts a t the se rv ic e of the re v o lu tio n : Jean C hariot from P a r is , 219 C arlos M&rlda from Guatemala, Paul 0 'H iggins, the p a in te r , and Noguchi, the Japanese-American s c u lp to r , from C a lifo rn ia . S erg ei E ls e n s te ln , the Russian film maker, a rriv e d to c h ro n ic le the event; George G rshw ln, the composer, to provide music fo r the l y r i c a l c r e a tio n s ; ! William S p ra tlln g , the New Orleans a r t i s t and w r i t e r , i | c re a te d a s i l v e r in d u stry out of Indigenous d esign s, m a te ria ls , and craftsm anship. Even the American t ■ Ambassador, Dwight D. Morrow, was caught up In the excitem ent of red isc o v erin g Mexico's p ast and c e le b ra tin g \ I t s p resent a r t i s t r y . H is to ria n s , a n th ro p o lo g is ts , | w rite rs descended In droves — Simpson, Malcolm Cowley, Waldo Prank, and, toward the end, Hart Crane. Lawrence, fe a rin g the re v o lu tio n , d e te s tin g Mexican a r t , and shunning the p r a c t it i o n e r s o f both, had missed almost a l l o f I t . Sick and t e r r i f i e d and almost com p le te ly I s o la te d , he had shut him self o f f from the c u rre n ts r ip p lin g and eddying through Mexico with Renaissance i n t e n s ity and excitem ent. But K atherine Anne P o rte r was a t the c e n te r o f things in those y ears: preaching re v o lu tio n and p r a c tis in g a r t w ith rev o lu t i o n i s t frie n d s and a r t i s t frie n d s as "gay and easy and poor as s h e .”22 She a lso led "the f a s t , tough, expensive, e le g a n t, high lo w -llfe (w ith) a most lo rd ly gang of fashion able in te r n a tio n a l hoodlums" — French, S panish, I t a l i a n , P o lis h , a l l with t i t l e s and good names, a l l reasonably young and Involved In flashy money-making e n t e r p r i s e s , and a l l " s ta lk in g pleasu re as I f I t were big game." (p. 95) She taught In c u l t u r a l m issions; she i | worked with E ls e n s te ln on a movie; she wrote f i c t i o n and I fa c t about Mexico; she tended her turk eys, geese, ! ch ick en s, and animals a t a house In the suburbs, where she s h e lte re d Crane. She was a t home everywhere: tea p a r ti e s a t the American Embassy, merry binges a t Dcfffa B e r ta 's bar In Tsxco, meetings o f the Syndicate of Technical Workers, P a in te rs and S c u lp to rs; she worked In dingy school rooms and played In fash io n ab le n ig h tc lu b s . There were two K atherine Anne P o rte rs In Mexico: the b r ig h t, e n th u s ia s tic r e v o lu t i o n i s t, loving l i f e and bent on transform ing the world o f man by a Joyous "flowery" war; the c o o l, detached a r t i s t , wooing death and tormented by the knowledge th at e v i l could not be conquered or even contained. For th a t reason the n o n -fic tio n and the f i c t i o n o f the Mexican period o f f e r a dram atic c o n tra s t. In the In tro d u c tio n to the f i r s t published c o lle c tio n o f essays and re p o rts o f three decades, The Days B efore. she attem pts to ex plain the c o n tr a s t: They re p re se n t the exact o p posite o f my f i c t i o n In th at they were w ritte n n early a l l by re q u e st, w ith lim ita tio n s o f space, a date fixed fo r f in is h in g , on a chosen su b je c t o r theme, as w ell as with the c e r t a i n ty th at they would be p u b lish e d .24 Moreover, she a s s e r t s , the a r t i c l e s were r e -w rit ten and | revised with whatever help she could get from persons she re sp e cted , unlike the s t o r i e s - - which "had to be j accepted and published e x a ctly as they were w r itte n ." | (p. v) T hat, as she I n s i s ts In many p la c e s , was e i t h e r In one d r a f t or " I f sh o rt enough, a t one s i t t i n g . " (p. v) The f i r s t o f the Mexican a r t i c l e s are c l e a r , b e a u tifu lly organized, o b je c tiv e ly p re se n ted , although obviously p a s sio n a te ly f e l t , accounts o f the p o l i t i c a l and a r t i s t i c movements o f the e a rly tw enties. "The Mexican T r i n i t y ," dated J u ly , 1921, la such a lu c id and p ercep tiv e re p o rt o f the games governments play In L atin America th a t I t might serve as a p o l i t i c a l science te x t In the 1970*8. I t p o in ts out th a t In a l l o f the s h i f t i n g and clamorous d is s e n t, In which " p lo ts thicken, th in , d i s in te g ra te In the space o f t h l r t y - s l x hours" (p. 2 5 0) — the one " s t a t i c combination" is Land, O il, and the Church, (p. 254) "in p rin c ip le these three are one," P o rte r a s s e r t s ; they do not take p a rt In "p e tty " n a tio n a l d issen sio n s sin ce " t h e i r b attleg ro u n d Is the w orld." (p. 254) T heir lie u te n a n ts c a rry out the n a tio n a l 222 c o n f l i c t s ; in Mexico* c a p i t a l i s t s Jo in in g fo rc es with i foreign in v e s to rs ; clergymen warning peasants th at to i accept the land given to them by the Reform Laws would be s te a lin g (a reason fo r w ithholding communion); p o l i t i c i a n s i shouting a n ti-B o ls h e v is t Blogans while s e l l i n g the country! i I to the enemy w ithin and w ithout. Through I t a l l , the j i i In dians a re the v ictim s; j . . . the very l i f e o f the co untry , th is in e r t and slow -breathin g mass, these l o s t people who move in the o b liv io n o f sleepw alkers under th e ir In c re d ib le burdens; these s i l e n t and rep ro ach fu l fig u re s in ra g s, bowed face to face with the e a rth ; I t is these who bind to g eth er a l l the accumulated and h o s ti le elements o f Mexican l i f e . Leagued a g a in st the Indian are four c e n tu rie s o f s e r v i tude, the incoming fo re ig n e r who w ill take the l a s t h e c ta re o f h is lan d , and h is own church that stands with the fo re ig n e rs , (p. 253) Two o th e r essays o f those e a r ly days, which are included in the l a t e r c o ll e c t i o n , The C ollected Essays and O ccasional W ritings o f K atherine Anne P o rte r. emphasise those themes o f b e tra y a l and e x p lo ita tio n . In the " F ie s ta s o f Guadalupe," w ritte n in 1923, she d escrib es the moving and t e r r i b l e pilgrim age Mexicans make from a l l over the country to the b a s ilic a on Tepeyac H ill. There, near the s i t e o f the temple to the Astec Corn Qoddess, ten years a f t e r the conquest a peasant named Juan Diego saw "m iraculously" stamped on his tllm c the image of the dark V irg in , the P atroness o f Mexico. 223 D escribing the c o lo r and movement - - f a n t a s t i c a l l y dressed Indians dancing In r e lig io u s ec sta sy ; sounds o f b e lls and weeping and beggars p leadin g alms; sm ells of sweat and f r u i t and flow ers — P o rte r confesses h e r s e l f overwhelmed by the hands o f the b e lie v e rs reaching out to touch the I magic g lass case th at sh ie ld s the image, seein g as I f In ' a dream "the humble and beseeching hands o f the m illio n s | and m illio n s who have only the anodyne o f c r e d u lity ." (p. 398) And she concludes on an unusually personal note: I t Is not Mary Guadalupe nor her son th at touches me. I t Is Juan Diego I remember, and h is people I s e e , kneeling in s c a tte r e d ranks on the flagged flo o r o f th e ir church, fix in g t h e ir eyes on m ystic, speechless th in g s. I t is th e ir ragged hands I s e e , and th e i r wounded h e a rts th a t I f e e l beatin g under t h e i r w ork-stained c lo th e s lik e a g re at v o l cano under the e a rth and I think to m yself, h o e p fu lly , th at men do not liv e In a deathly dream fo re v e r, (p. 3 9 8) In s e v e ra l o th e r a r t i c l e s about those e a rly years o f sorrow and o f hope In the re v o lu tio n , she w rite s of her fe e lin g fo r the people of Mexico, th e ir a r t , and th e ir " tru e p a t r i o t s . " In one, "Where P re sid e n ts Have No F rie n d s," w ritte n In 1922, she defends P resid en t Obregon's d e c la ra tio n o f h is in te n tio n to r e d i s t r i b u t e land to the peasants (a program au th o rize d by A r tic le 27 of the Mexican C o n stitu tio n o f 1917); and she p ra is e s such "tru e p a t r i o t s " in and out o f government as: Luis Morones, le a d e r of the Labor P arty ; Jose Vasconcelos, p re sid e n t of 224 t h e N a t i o n a l U n i v e r s i t y a s w e l l a s M i n i s t e r o f E d u c a t i o n ; I Manuel G&mlo, a rc h a e o lo g ist and w r ite r ; Adolfo Best-Maugard, p a in te r and teach er. A ll o f them, she s a id , are convinced that twelve o f Mexico's f i f t e e n m illio n I p e o p l e c a n n o t c o n t i n u e t o l i v e I n p o v e r t y a n d I l l i t e r a c y . I : " T h e y h a v e a c i v i l i s e d c o n v i c t i o n t h a t t h e l a b o r e r I s \ I worthy of his h i r e , a p r a c t ic a l percep tio n o f the waste ; i ! ■ e n ta ile d In m illio n s of acres o f u n t i ll e d land while the i working people go hungry." (p. 414) And, she glowed, i "with th is b e l i e f goes an a e s th e tic a p p re c ia tio n o f the 1 n e c e s s ity o f beauty In the n a tio n a l l i f e , the c u ltiv a tio n of r a c i a l forms o f a r t , and the c r e a tio n o f s u b s ta n t ia l and la s t i n g un ity In n a tio n a l p o l i t i c s . " (p. 4lU) U n l i k e L a w r e n c e , s h e w a s I n t r i g u e d b y t h e s o c i a l a n d p o l i t i c a l c o n t e n t o f M e x i c a n a r t , s a y i n g o f t h e r e n a s c e n c e ; I was not won to I t by any a r t l f i c a l In flu en ce; I recognised I t a t once as something very n a tu ra l and a c c e p ta b le , a fe e lin g fo r a r t consanguine w ith my own, unfolding In a re v o lu tio n which retu rn ed to fin d I t s freedoms In profound and honorable s o u rc e s .25 Her f i r s t book, asid e from the g h o st-w ritte n My Chinese M arriage, was the O utline of Mexican Popular A rts and C r a f ts , prepared In 1922 In conjunction with a tra v e lin g e x h ib itio n and published under the auspices o f the M inistry of In d u stry , Commerce and L a b o r . j n t h a t , she 225 p r o t e s t s w i t h a l l t h e v i g o r o f L a w r e n c e t h e d e s t r u c t l v e n e s a o f m o d e r n I n d u s t r i a l p r o g r e s s , w h i c h r e m o v e s t h e a r t i s t f r o m " f r u c t i f y i n g c o n t a c t w i t h h i s m o t h e r e a r t h " a n d l e a v e s h i m v u l n e r a b l e " t o t h e o v e r w h e l m i n g f o r c e s o f a w o r l d t u r n e d d i z z l n g l y b y a m a c h i n e . ” ( p . 3 8) ■ A n d e v e n a f t e r s h e h a d l o s t f a i t h I n t h e a b i l i t y o f t h e | i M e x i c a n r e v o l u t i o n t o f u l f i l l I t s h u m a n e a n d l i b e r a l i a m b i t i o n s , s h e p l a c e d h i g h v a l u e o n t h e s o c i a l c o n t e n t o f ; I 1 a r t a n d I n s i s t e d o n t h e n e e d f o r e n g a g e m e n t , h o l d i n g I n c o n t e m p t — f o r e x a m p l e - - G e r t r u d e S t e i n , w h o o p e r a t e d I n i a m o r a l v a c u u m , c o n c e r n e d o n l y w i t h t e c h n i c a l e f f e c t s . 2 ? T h e p r o b l e m P o r t e r h a d t o c o p e w i t h I n c r e a s i n g l y , p a r t i c u l a r l y a f t e r l e a v i n g M e x i c o , w a s t o k e e p m o r a l i z i n g f r o m d o m i n a t i n g h e r a r t . T h e s e r m o n s s h e p r e a c h e d s o e f f e c t i v e l y I n h e r n o n - f l c t l o n I n v a d e d h e r l a t e r f i c t i o n s o t h a t d e l i c a t e I r o n y g a v e w a y t o a p o c a l y p t i c s a t i r e . H e r a d o p t i o n o f t h a t m o d e m a y h a v e r e s u l t e d i n p a r t f r o m h e r t e n a c i o u s e f f o r t s t o s e e i n p r i n t h e r t r a n s - / ^ / l a t i o n o f J o s e J o a q u i n F e r n a n d e z d e L i z a r d l ' s p i c a r e s q u e n o v e l . L l z a r d i , a 1 9th c e n t u r y M e x i c a n p a m p h l e t e e r , h a d w r i t t e n w h a t w a s c o n s i d e r e d " t h e n o v e l ” o f L a t i n A m e r i c a f o r m o r e t h a n a c e n t u r y : E l P e r e q u l l l o S a r n l e n t o ( T h e I t c h i n g P a r r o t ) . I n t h a t , h e s u m m e d u p g a i l y a n d w i t h b a w d y s e r m o n i z i n g t h e I l l s o f t h e s o c i e t y o f h i s t i m e , w h i c h h e h e l d d u e c h i e f l y t o t h e p o w e r o f c h u r c h a n d s t a t e . L i k e o t h e r N e o c l a s s i c l i b e r a l s , t h e a u t h o r f o u n d f i c t i o n a c o n v e n i e n t v e h i c l e f o r t h e i d e a s t h a t w h e n e x p r e s s e d i n T h e M e x i c a n T h i n k e r a n d o t h e r n o n - f i c t i o n p u b l i c a t i o n s c r e a t e d p r o b l e m s w i t h t h e c e n s o r s a n d f r e q u e n t l y l a n d e d h i m i n J a i l . L l z a r d l ' s I n d e p e n d e n c e r l j and s o c ia l concerns would have appealed to her under any j , c i r c u m s t a n c e . P a r t l y , h o w e v e r , s h e h a d a p e r s o n a l i i n t e r e s t i n t h e p r o j e c t . E u g e n e P r e s s l y , h e r s e c o n d h u s b a n d , h a d m a d e t h e f i r s t f u l l t r a n s l a t i o n i n t o E n g l i s h o f E l P e r l q u l l l o S a r n l e n t o , a n d e d i t e d a n d r e v i s e d t h a t " a t g r e a t l e n g t h . F o r d M a d o x F o r d h a d r e a d i t a n d m a d e s u g g e s t i o n s f o r d e l e t i o n s — i n c l u d i n g , a l a s , m u c h o f t h e g a i e t y a n d b a w d i n e s s . The book f i n a l l y appeared in condensed form in 19*12, a f t e r "ten y e a r s 1 try in g and fou rteen publishers* r e j e c t l o n s ."3° I t won no g re at p r a is e , but i t was an Important venture fo r P o rte r sin ce The Ship of Fools owes much to i t s s a t i r i c view and i t helped to re in fo rc e In her s t y le the Influence o f l8 th century E nglish prose — the "straightaw ay course" and the mixture of fo rm a lity th a t pervades even the slan g , (p. 386) Less h ap p ily , I t did not warn h er adequately a g a in st some o f what she considered to be d e fe c ts o f the book, h is "uninspired" attem pts to p o rtra y v irtu e in a c tio n and hia f a ilu r e to i hide h is d isillu sio n m e n t as a r e s u l t o f which "most of ! h is attem pts to play upon the r e a d e r 's sentim ents rin g f a l s e ." (p. xxxlx) One of the Mexican essays that is o f co n sid erab le ! s t y l i s t i c i n t e r e s t is "La C o n q u i s t a d o r s a review w ritte n in 1926 o f the l e t t e r s o f R osalie Evans, which had been published by her s i s t e r to c a l l a tte n tio n to "the sacred p rin c ip le s of p riv a te ownership o f p ro p e rty ." 3 1 I Mrs. Evans, a Texan m arried to a B r itis h s u b je c t, had waged war with the Mexican government from the death of her husband in 1917 to her own death in 1924, when she was shot from ambush on her way to the hacienda she in s is te d she s t i l l owned. I t is an e x tra o rd in a ry p o r t r a i t o f a r u th le s s and daring and fa s c in a tin g woman, "ruled by a single-m inded love of money and power." (p. 4l8) P o rte r sums up the a v a ric e , courage, fa n a tic ism , shrewdness, p o ise , and te n a c ity with a c u rio u sly L aurentian observa tio n : "Toward the end she had almost l o s t h er n a tu ra l r e a c tio n s . Anger, f e a r , d e lig h t, hope - - no more of these. She was a W ill." (p. 417) What marks the essay is the p re c isio n and detachment w ith which the savage c a r ic a tu r e i s p a in te d , the d e l ic a t e , even tone in which the woman is demolished: Revolution is not g e n tle , e i t h e r fo r those who make I t o r those who oppose I t . This s to ry has I t s own value as a record o f one l i f e liv e d very f u lly and co n scio u sly . I think the l i f e and death o f Mrs. Evans were her own p riv a te ad v en tu res, most gladly sought and en viably c a rrie d through. As a p e r s o n a lity , she Is worth a t t e n t i o n , being b e a u ti f u l , daring and a t t r a c t i v e . As a human being she was a v a ric io u s , w ith an e x tra o rd in a ry hardness o f h e a rt and ru th le ss n e s s o f w i l l ; and she died In a grotesque cause, (p. 420) i | The Mexican essay which I think Is most Important In c r e a tin g an understanding o f the s ig n ific a n c e o f th a t time and th at place did not appear u n t i l 1955 In Mademoiselle and Is l i s t e d In the C o llected Essays under "Personal and P a r tic u la r " r a th e r than the "Mexican" group. "S t. Augustine and the B u llfig h t" In d ic a te s the how and the why she became, in s p it e o f h er lim ite d o u tp u t, one of the g re at sto ry t e l l e r s o f the 20th cen tu ry . I t I s , as the t i t l e su g g e sts, a "c o n fessio n ." And of a most I n t i mate s o r t . C are fu lly s tru c tu re d as a piece o f f i c t i o n , the essay begins by d is tin g u is h in g adventure — something sought "fo r p leasure or p r o f it " — from ex p e rie n c e ; "what r e a l ly happens to you In the long run; the tru th th a t f i n a l l y overtakes you." (p. 93) W illiam B u tle r Teats had made her aware th at the unhappy and un fo rtu n ate person was "one whose adventures outran h is c a p a c ity fo r , ex p erien ce." (p. 91) The true a r t i s t , o f co u rse, Is able 229 to comprehend the tr u th , face up to i t — however p a in fu l o r h o rrif y in g — In the world and In h im self. I t Is not i I easy : j f Only by remembering, comparing, w aitin g to know [ the consequences can we sometimes, In a fla s h of l i g h t , see what a c e r ta in event r e a l ly meant, what I t was try in g to t e l l us. So th is w i l l be notes on a f a t e f u l thing th at happened to me ! | when 1 was young and did not know much about | j the world or m yself, (p. 9*0 | I The " f a te f u l" thing th a t transform ed the Mexican ; adventure Into experience and ( I b eliev e) transformed i the r e p o rte r Into a w rite r occurred a t a b u llf ig h t she atten ded w ith one o f the "merry sin n e rs" she ran w ith a t th at time, In a d d itio n to her r e v o lu tio n is t and a r t i s t frie n d s . S h e lle y , a 5 0 -y ear-o ld Englishman, a r ic h and w i l l f u l member o f the p o e t's fam ily, bred and so ld race horses in Mexico "with the stony detachment and m erciless a p p r a is a l o f the tru e horse l i v e r . ” (p. 95) They had not had a love a f f a i r , but a "fa rfe tc h e d frie n d s h ip ." That "co n sisted la rg e ly o f good advice about worldy things from him, mingled with c r i t i c a l m arginal notes on my c h a ra c te r — a c h a ra c te r o f which I could not recognise a s in g le t r a i t . " (p. 9 6 ) On an A p ril day, a f t e r tau n tin g her about "cowardice he f i n a l l y persuaded her to go to a b u l lf i g h t. She o b jected to sla u g h te rin g animals as sp o rt and had long \ r e a ls ta d ; and when they a r riv e d a t the b u ll r i n g , she 230 found th a t her hands were cold and she was "trem bling in n e rly ." (p. 9 8 ) The f ig h te r s were among the b e s t: Sanches Mejias and Rudolfo Gaona; the b u lls were o f f i r s t q u a lity ; the s e t t i n g was gorgeous, with the hot blue sky and flow er-covered c a rria g e s d riv in g up to the p laza de tp r o s . The sp e c ta c le was prefaced with an e q u e stria n e x h ib itio n by H a ttie Weston, a r i d e r so superb th at she waB Id o lized by the custom arily c y n ic a l S h elley . The f i r s t b u l l, a " b e a u tif u l monster o f brute courage," h is black and white hide colored by green ribbons and th in r iv u le ts o f red blood, rushed a t the p ic a d o r's horse and disemboweled i t with a s in g le sweep of his head. P o rte r covered her eyes. But S h elley took her | 1 i w ris ts and held her hands on her knees as i f determined to overcome In her "a grave flaw o f c h a ra c te r ." He shouted: "You must face I t . " (p. 99) She d id: "I did look and I did face I t , though not fo r years and y e a rs ." (p. 9 9 ) She does not r e l a t e what happened u n t i l the concluding sentences o f the essay - - th at when the time came to k i l l the splendid b u l l , she was cry in g out with the crowd and k is s in g S h elley on the cheek, (p. 101) Her frie n d s h ip with him ended: "There was b lo o d g u ilt between u s, we shared an e v i l s e c r e t , a h a te f u l re v e la tio n 231 H e h a t e d w h a t h e h a d r e v e a l e d i n m e t o h i m s e l f , a n d I h a t e d w h a t h e h a d r e v e a l e d t o m e a b o u t m y s e l f . . . " ( p p . 9 9 - 1 0 0 ) W h a t h a d b e e n r e v e a l e d w a s t h a t : I l o v e d t h e s p e c t a c l e o f t h e b u l l f i g h t s , I w a s d r u n k o n i t . I w a s I n a s t r a n g e , w i l d d r e a m f r o m w h i c h I d i d n o t w a n t t o b e a w a k e n e d . X w a s n o w d r a w n I r r e s i s t i b l y t o t h e b u l l r i n g a s b e f o r e I h a d b e e n d r a w n t o t h e r a c e t r a c k s a n d t h e p o l o f i e l d s a t h o m e . B u t t h i s h a d d e a t h i n I t , a n d i t w a s t h e d e a t h i n I t t h a t I l o v e d . . . A n d I w a s b i t t e r l y a s h a m e d o f t h i s e v i l i n m e , a n d b e l i e v e d I t t o b e I n m e o n l y — n o o n e h a d f a l l e n s o f a r I n t o c r u e l t y a s t h i s ! T h e s e b u l l f i g h t b u f f s I t r u l y b e l i e v e d d i d n o t k n o w w h a t t h e y w e r e d o i n g — b u t I d i d , a n d I k n e w b e t t e r b e c a u s e I h a d o n c e k n o w n b e t t e r ; s o t h a t s p i r i t u a l p r i d e g o t I n a n d d i d I t s d e a d l y w o r k , t o o . H o w c o u l d I f a c e t h e c o l d f a c t t h a t a t h e a r t I w a s J u s t a k i l l e r , l i k e a n y o t h e r , t h a t s o m e d e e p c o r n e r o f m y s o u l c o n s e n t e d n o t J u s t w i l l i n g l y b u t w i t h r a p t u r e ? I s t i l l c l u n g o b s t i n a t e l y t o m y f l a t t e r i n g v i e w o f m y s e l f a s a u n i q u e c a s e , a s a h u m a n e , b l o o d - a v o l d l n g c i v i l i s e d b e i n g , s o m e h o w a f a l l e n a n g e l p e r h a p s ? J u s t t h e s a m e , w h a t w a s I d o i n g t h e r e ? A n d w h y w a s I b e g i n n i n g s e c r e t l y t o a b h o r S h e l l e y a s I f h e h a d d o n e m e a g r e a t I n j u r y , w h e n i n f a c t h e h a d d o n e m e t h e t e r r i b l e a n d d a n g e r o u s f a v o r o f h e l p i n g m e t o f i n d m y s e l f o u t ? ( p . 1 0 0 ) A s a p e r s o n , i t w a s y e a r s b e f o r e s h e w a s a b l e t o t r a n s l a t e t h a t a d v e n t u r e i n t o e x p e r i e n c e — a n d t h e n o n l y b e c a u s e i n r e - r e a d i n g S t . A u g u s t i n e ' s C o n f e s s i o n s s h e h a d d i s c o v e r e d t h e s t o r y o f a f r i e n d o f t h e g a n g o f c l e v e r , w e l l b o r n y o u n g h o o d l u m s t h a t A u g u s t i n e h a d r u n w i t h . F o r a l o n g t i m e , t h e f r i e n d h a d r e f u s e d t o g o w i t h t h e m t o t h e g l a d i t o r l a l c o m b a t s , w h i c h h e c o n s i d e r e d " c r u e l a n d 232 c r im i n a l ." F inally* bowing to t h e i r taunts and pleas* he i b went* determined not to watch. He did not u n t i l i t was time fo r the f i r s t s la u g h te r: "when the howling o f the crowd brought him to h is feet* s ta r in g ; and afterw ard he was more b lo o d -th irs ty than any." (p. 101) P o rte r found j reassurance in th a t sin ce I t gave her "freedom from the | uniqueness o f sin*" the courage that a l l a r t i s t s must i possess to confront the mlnotaur In the la b y rin th o f s e l f . : i i And she* lik e the Roman boy* had been "stro n g enough" to turn adventure in to experience. But th at adventure-experlence was a t the h e a rt o f her a r t i s t r y , from "Marla Concepcion*" her f i r s t published sh o rt sto ry w ritte n In 1922, to the Ship of F ools, which appeared fo r ty years l a t e r . Her f i c t i o n re p re se n ts the e f f o r t o f a fin e ta le n t and a fin e s p i r i t try in g to come to terms with th a t love o f death* th a t ra p tu re o f k illin g * th at awareness o f e v i l and sin w ithin and w ithout. I t ex plain s why the re v o lu tio n a ry campaigner fo r the r ig h ts o f man p re fe rre d James to Whitman* not only as a "more advanced craftsm an and a b e tt e r th in k e r* " but a man who had "more confusing choices to make and who labored over harder problem s."^2 I t ex p lain s her r e je c tio n of o p t i mism. I t explains why P orter* so reserved about her own l i f e and so determined to remain a t "the c e n te r o f her 233 o w n m y s t e r y , " f i g u r e s a s t h e c e n t r a l c h a r a c t e r I n a l m o s t e v e r y t h i n g s h e w r o t e . I t e x p l a i n s h e r t o n e o f i r o n i c d e t a c h m e n t . i t e x p l a i n s h e r d o m i n a n t t h e m e s * d i s i l l u s i o n m e n t a n d s e l f - b e t r a y a l a n d d e s p a i r . A b o v e a l l , f i t e x p l a i n s t h e " r e l i g i o u s s e n s e " o f h e r w h o l e p r o d u c t i o n . | N o t s u r p r i s i n g l y , w h e n C a r l V a n D o r e n , t h e e d i t o r o f C e n t u r y M a g a z i n e a n d " t h e f i r s t p e r s o n " t o r e a d o n e o f h e r s t o r i e s , s a w t h e m a n u s c r i p t o f " M a r f a C o n c e p c i o n " h e ; r e s p o n d e d w a r m l y : " I b e l i e v e y o u a r e a w r i t e r ! " 3 3 S h e j h a d w r i t t e n t h e s t o r y i n N e w Y o r k I n 1 9 2 2 b e f o r e r e t u r n i n g i t o M e x i c o t o a r r a n g e a n a r t e x h i b i t f o r t h e M e x i c a n j j g o v e r n m e n t . B y a n y s t a n d a r d , i t i s a r e m a r k a b l e s t o r y : f o r m , t o n e , s t y l e , a n d — p e r h a p s m o s t r e m a r k a b l e o f a l l — I t s a b i l i t y t o m a k e t h e v a s t l e a p i n t i m e a n d s p a c e , f r o m r a c e t o r a c e , i n t o t h e m i n d s a n d f e e l i n g s o f I n d i a n p e o n s . T h e s i m p l e s t o r y a b o u t a w i f e ' s m u r d e r o f h e r r i v a l , h e r h u s b a n d ' s a n d h e r n e i g h b o r s ' d e f e n s e o f h e r a g a i n s t t h e a u t h o r i t i e s , h e r a d o p t i n g t h e d e a d w o m a n ' s c h i l d a s h e r o w n i s t h e e s s e n c e o f m y t h : t h e m y t h o f w o m a n a s c r e a t o r - d e s t r o y e r , t r i u m p h a n t v i c t i m , f l o u t i n g l a w t o d i s p e n s e J u s t i c e . F r o m t h e s h a d o w s o f t h e a m b i g u i t i e s o f t h e m e e m e r g e g l o w i n g m o r a l , e m o t i o n a l , a n d § s o c i a l s y m b o l s . T h e s t o r y i s s o r i c h I n d e t a i l a n d i n o b s e r v a t i o n t h a t i n f e w e r t h a n e i g h t e e n p a g e s i t c o n - i j s t l t u t e s a p s y c h o l o g i c a l g u i d e f o r t h o s e w h o w o u l d 2 34 u n d e r s t a n d t h e v a l u e s a n d t h e l i f e - s t y l e o f a n o t h e r c u l t u r e . T h e s t o r y b e g i n s e f f o r t l e s s l y w i t h a s t u d y o f t h e c e n t r a l c h a r a c t e r , M a r f a C o n c e p c i o n , c a r r y i n g a d o s e n c h i c k e n s s l u n g a r o u n d h e r n e c k , i s o n h e r w a y t o m a r k e t t h e m a n d t o d e l i v e r l u n c h t o h e r h u s b a n d a n d h i s j e m p l o y e r , t h e a r c h a e o l o g i s t w h o I s u n e a r t h i n g a b u r l e d c i t y . I n a f e w p a r a g r a p h s w e k n o w a l l t h a t i s s i g n i f i c a n t j about th is 18-year-old Juno, with her "game-cock" husband.j She is hard-w orking, prosperous, re sp o n s ib le , sc o rn fu l o f ! s u p e r s titio n - - a "good C h r is tia n ." Pregnant, she is as proud as I f she owned an hacienda about the "potent" b i t o f paper she had paid fo r a year e a r l i e r , which had licen sed her and Juan to be m arried in the church ra th e r than behind I t . The one normal weakness she possesses Is her love of h o n e y . A s t h e c r a v i n g o v e r t a k e s h e r f o r o n e o f t h e c r u s t s t h a t s h e b u y s f r o m M a r l a R o s a , s h e s w e r v e s i n h e r J o u r n e y along the dusty road to purchase one, a ssu rin g h e r s e l f i t I s n e c e s s a r y s o t h a t t h e c h i l d w i l l n o t b e m a r k e d . S h e * h e a r s l a u g h t e r I n M a r l a R o s a ' s g a r d e n a n d t h r o u g h t h e h e d g e s e e s h e r h u s b a n d a n d t h e g i r l m a k i n g l o v e . M a r f a R o s a , w i t h h e r p o i n t e d c h i n , h e r d a r k r e d m o u t h , t h e q u i c k - m o v i n g l i g h t s I n h e r e y e s , I s a l l t h a t a n y J u p i t e r 235 would love. She Is the g i r l P o rte r wrote about In one o f the "Two Songs from Mexico"i j I I should lik e to see again That honey-colored g i r l Dipping h er arms shoulder-deep In the hives o f honey. i Who can t e l l me where she is gone, That untroubled innocent Whose hands were kissed by bees, . And whose fin g e rs dripped honey?^4 i i i ' i Dazed, burning, and empty because o f what she has ! seen, Marfa Concepcion re tu rn s soun dlessly to take up her ! i Journey, saying to h e r s e l f , as i f expecting co n firm a tio n , | "Yes, she Is a whore! She has no r ig h t to l i v e . "35 She a r r iv e s a t the excavations and encounters a iv e n s , J u a n 's a rc h a e o lo g ist employer, who Is c le a r ly modeled d i r e c t l y from P o r te r 's fr ie n d , Niven, the b a f f lin g monomaniac o f the n o n - f lc tlo n a l sk etch , "The Charmed L i f e . "3^ Givens s e le c ts a ch ick en, but the calmness w ith which she d e c a p ita te s I t d is tu rb s him. Her grand manner and her look o f condescension because he has no w hite woman to cook fo r him remind Givens o f "ro y alty In e x i l e . "37 Givens, fo r a l l h is knowledge o f Mexico, Is ty p ic a lly Anglo in a t t i t u d e : generous In rescuing Juan from h is escapades and lik in g the Indians b est "when he could f e e l a f a th e r ly Indulgence fo r th e ir p rim itiv e c h ild is h ways." (p. 7) The second p a rt o f the s to r y begins when Juan runs 236 o f f th a t night w ith Marfa Rosa to Join the n e a re st detachment o f troops. Marfa Concepcion did not weep t h e n , ! nor l a t e r when the baby died four days a f t e r I t s b i r t h . She went to church, kept to h e r s e l f , sold h er chickens, Increased the sack o f co in s. The v illa g e r s would have | t : ; suspected her o f being "d e v il-p o sse sse d ," her face ! becomes so changed and " b lin d -lo o k in g ." But they decide ! th at is Im possible: " a f t e r a l l , she had been m arried by i | the p r i e s t . " (p. 9) They agree th a t she is being j punished fo r her pride and p ity h e r, even Lupe, Marla R osa's godmother. The th ird and lo n g est p a rt o f the s to ry begins when Juan and Marla Rosa re tu rn home. Juan faces Imprisonment as a d e s e r te r ; Marfa Rosa is about to give b i r t h . When Givens rescues Juan, the game-cock's w orries seem to be / o ver. Marvelously dressed in the c lo th e s Maria Rosa had s to le n f o r him from b a t t l e f i e l d c o rp se s, he is e c s t a t i c : he has h is Job ag ain , h is f in e r y , and two women — the one he m arried in the church and the one, " lik e honey," who has now given him a son. A fte r c e le b ra tin g th a t a t the "Death and R esurrection" pulque shop, he goes to the house o f Marfa Concepcion to e s ta b lis h mastery and f a l l s ✓ in to a drunken sle e p a f t e r Marla s t r i k e s back when he attem pts to beat h er. 237 Awakened by the sound o f h er voice and the s ig h t of her In the doorway some hours l a t e r , Juan suddenly becomesi i a man when he hears th a t she has k ille d Marla Rosa. He j takes charge b ris k ly to hide the evidence. At the same tim e, he wishes to repent — "not as a man, but as a very | sm all c h i l d ." (p. 1 5 ) „ I | Marla Concepcion r e a liz e s she has nothing to fe a r | , when they are c a lle d to Marla R osa's house by the p o lic e . i ; Her dead r i v a l becomes p i t i a b l e : "Now she must s i t In h e l l 4 | cry in g over h er sin s and her hard death fo re v er and e v e r." ✓ (p. 17) The v i l l a g e r s , even Marla R osa's godmother, Join , fo rces to p ro te c t her from the a u t h o r i t i e s . "They were around h e r, speaking fo r h e r, the fo rces o f l i f e were ranged In v in c ib ly with her a g a in s t the beaten dead." (p. 20) The p o lice su rren d er and the v i l la g e r s nod approval when Marla Concepcion takes the w allin g son o f Marla Rosa In her arms. "He Is m ine,” she says c l e a r l y , " I w ill take him with me." (p. 20) As the s to ry ends, J u a n 's e x a lta tio n vanishes. Adventure Is over; tomorrow he w i l l re tu rn to d u ll and unceasing la b o r, "he must descend Into the trenches o f * n the burled c i t y as Marla Rosa must go In to her grave. (p. 20) As he f a l l s a s le e p , b i t t e r and exhausted, she hears the c h i l d 's b reath lik e "a shadowy moth o f sound In the s i l v e r a i r . " Them The n i g h t , the e a rth under h e r, seemed to sw ell and recede to g eth er with a l i m i t l e s s , unhurried, benign b re ath in g . She dropped and closed her ey es, fe e lin g the slow r i s e and f a l l w ithin her own body. She did not know what I t was, • but I t eased her a l l through. Even as she was i f a l l i n g a s le e p , head bowed over the c h ild , she was s t i l l aware o f a s tra n g e , wakeful happiness. (p. 2 1 ) ; Here, a t once, Is myth, s o c io lo g ic a l stu d y , and . f i c t i o n o f high o rd e r. Marla Concepcion Is a mythic beln&| ! not merely a Juno o r Hera, but the archaic T ellus Mater — ; l the A rtec goddess Tonantzln, who p e rso n ifie d death and ! who was a ls o the u ltim a te source o f l i f e . Her d u a lity Is i r e f le c te d In the p a tte rn of li g h t and shade In the s to ry o f the woman who a t t a i n s motherhood through murder. The s to ry begins In the s u n lig h t, w ith the discovery o f b e tra y a l; In the s u n lig h t, she sla y s her r i v a l . As the s to ry moves toward r e s o lu tio n , toward peace, night f a l l s on the m y stical madonna and her son — more tru ly h e r s , as E arth Mother, than the dispensable c re a tu re who bore him. Marla Concepcion's s t a t u r e had alread y been e s ta b lis h e d . Juan acknowledges I t when he l i s t e n s to h er confession and Is overwhelmed by the mystery: "He f e l t th a t she had become in v a lu a b le , a woman w ithout equal among a m illio n women, and he could not t e l l why.” (p. 16) The v illa g e r s acknowledge I t , when they u n ite 239 to p ro te c t her — although she had shown h er contempt fo r them. As the c h ild l i e s crad led In her la p , the read er a ls o understands and f e e ls the mythic r e la tio n s h ip between man and the e a r th , the b e l i e f th at m y stical autochthony th a t Is c e n tr a l to almost a l l e a rly c u ltu r e s . j j The mythic q u a lity o f "Marla Concepcion" Is i I ! re in fo rc e d by the point o f view: the n a r r a t o r 's voice a l l ! i I | wise and a l l knowing, the voice of a t e l l e r who has looked w ithout h o rro r In to the d ark est places In the h e a rts of men and who has found the l i g h t w ith in . In th is sto ry as In o th e r o f her f i n e s t s t o r i e s , P o rte r speaks the language o f deepest experience — re v e a lin g not things seen, but things f e l t In the nerve, the muscle, the bone, the blood. A p ercep tiv e a n a ly sis o f th is q u a lity has been made by Eudora Welty In an a r t i c l e e n t i t l e d "The Eye o f the S to ry ," In which she comments on the lack o f " v i s i b i l i t y " In P o r t e r 1* w ritin g . In ste a d of focusing on the s u rfa c e , she brushes th a t away In o rd e r to make us "see" the "su b je c tiv e worlds of h a llu c in a tio n , o b sessio n , fe v e r, g u i l t . "38 pa r from s h u ttin g out l i f e by her f a il u r e to provide " p ic tu r e s ," Welty say s, the e f f e c t has been to in te n s if y l i f e : Her s t o r i e s o f Mexico, Germany, Texas a l l happen th ere: where love and h a te , tr y s t and b e tra y a l happen. And so t h e i r a u th o r 's gaze Is turned not outward but Inward, and has confronted the 240 m ysterious dark from h er w ork's beginning. (p. 1 0 6) In "Marfa Concepcion," fo r example, we see Ju s t th at su rfa ce th at Is necessary to e s ta b lis h the lo v e rs . (And w ith what marvelous economy she d esc rib es the p assio n ate play o f the two lo v ers in th e ir deml-Eden o f Jasmine and | I "golden shimmer o f b e e s.") What we f e e l , however, Is the ' i ^ ^ it | anguish o f Marla Concepcion: Her forehead w s b c o ld , and ! i | yet b o ilin g w ater seemed to be pouring slowly along her i i s p in e ." (p. 5) As she heads on w ith the food: "She burned a l l over now, as i f a la y e r of tin y fig -c a c tu s b r i s t l e s as c ru e l as spun glass had crawled under her s k in ." (p. 6 ) The p sy ch olog ical explanation fo r th at q u a lity in her a r t Is r e la te d to Ju n g 's theory th a t dreams th a t are ric h In p i c t o r i a l d e t a i l are p rim a rily concerned with In d iv id u al problem s, whereas: . . . the dreams c h a ra c te ris e d by scan t d e t a i l and simple Images communicate In sig h ts in to g r e a t, u n iv e rsa l c o n te x ts; they re p re se n t asp ects of the cosmos, the e t e r n a l laws o f n atu re and the t r u t h . 39 Also Im portant In achieving a mythic q u a lity — - a q u a lity th at d is tin g u is h e s a l l of P o r t e r 's b est and such d i f f e r e n t s t o r i e s as "Pale Horse, Pale R id er," "Hoon Wine," "H acienda," "Flowering Judas" — is her a t t i t u d e toward | time. Mlrcea E llade holds I t to be a t the h e a rt o f myth th at I t ab o lish es "profane time" and r e a s s e r ts and recovers " l i t u r g i c a l time" — I . e . the "Great Time o f the N jlQ ^ „ I beginnings. Marla Is an archetypal* Impersonal | fig u re and the events o f the s to ry In which she p a r t i c ip a te s give the I llu s io n — In E lla d e 's words — of taking place not in the h i s t o r i c a l time of the In d iv id u a l l if e * "but In the Time o f the sp ecies — even o f organic Life I t s e l f . " (p. 5*0 Since P o rte r Is a poet e s s e n tia lly * when she does " f a l l In to time*" the r e s u l t s are le s s f o rtu n a te . That Is the case w ith the Ship o f Pools, which, f o r a l l her concern to endow i t w ith a l l e g o r i c a l and mythic am pli tude* seems more an event d ea lin g with p a r t i c u l a r and personal people who e x is t only In h i s t o r i c time than a r e a c tu a llz a tlo n o f a mystery Involving the s p e c ie s . The f a il u r e of s e v e ra l o f the Mexican s t o r i e s a ls o p o in ts up th at temporal " f a l l . " Too much takes place In the surface* here and now, "The M artyr," a sketch o f a p a in te r who a te him self to death a f t e r being d ese rted by his m istress* Is too obviously an a tta c k on se lf-in d u lg e n c e and su rren d er to p h y sic a l a p p e tite . P o rte r has a m e d ie v a lis t's concern with the "Seven Deadly S in s ," p a r t i c u l a r ly those o f the f le s h . Gluttony* as an obvious emblem o f moral c o r ru p tio n 242 ranks high on the l i s t . I t Is a d is tin g u is h in g ch arac- i t e r l s t l c o f almost a l l o f the flawed passengers aboard i the Ship o f Fools, f o r example. Somewhat more su c c e ssfu l is "That T re e ," a s a t i r i c a l j r study of s e lf-rig h te o u s n e s s and s e lf-d e c e p tio n . j i S t r u c t u r a l l y , the s to ry o f the r e la tio n s h ip between the j Middle Western school teacher and the American p o e t- | j tu r n e d - jo u r n a lis t, is awkward. In the form of a j "co n fessio n ” made by the man to h is guest in a c a fe , i t 1 i is the kind o f rambling confession im possible to take s e rio u s ly - - d e sp ite o ccasio n al e f f o r t s to give i t r e a l i t y by snatches o f d ialo g and some in c is iv e p o r t r a i tu re . The n a r r a to r is a bore. The story begins o b je c tiv e ly i "He had r e a l l y wanted to be a c h e e rfu l bum ly in g under a tre e in a good c lim a te , w ritin g p o e try ." ^ 1 His th re e -y e a r escape in Mexico w ith a r t i s t frie n d s comes to an end when Miriam a r riv e s from Minneapolis to marry him. But a f t e r an un-gay time, she leaves him, having r a ile d a g a in st h is poverty, h is frie n d s , h is s h iftle s s n e s s . Determined to prove h er wrong, he had become a J o u r n a lis t and had made "a good thing" of th a t: He had made the kind o f success you can c l i p out o f newspapers and paste in a book, you can count i t and put i t in the bank, you can e a t and d rin k and wear i t , and you can see i t in o th e r p eo p le 's eyes a t tea and dinner p a r t i e s , (p. 78) 243 But Miriamfe remembered taunts and h er abrupt departure haunt him through two o th e r m arriages; now, as he t e l l s h is g u e st, she wants to re tu r n . He w i l l take her back; but there w ill be no m arriage ceremony, no house with modern conveniences, and th is time i t w ill be she who w i l l "walk the chalk l i n e . " The point o f view s h i f t s ab ru p tly again - - p re sumably to make the irony c le a r to readers who may have missed i t . The guest thinks b e tte r o f h is d e s ire to say; "Donf t fo rg e t to in v ite me to your wedding." (p. 79) And as they prepare to leave the almost d eserted c a fe , the j o u r n a l i s t ends the s to ry with the a s s e rtio n th at th is time he knows "w hat's happening" - - as he obviously does | not. In i t s f a i l u r e , the s to ry c a l l s to mind Lawrence's "None of T h at." Both seem to s u f f e r from an excess of " a c t u a l i ty ," suggest th at they had been picked up from Anglo-American Colony gossip and seized upon as a chance to even up sc o re s . The c h a ra c te rs are not deeply f e l t ; the symbols are co n triv e d ; the tone m alicious r a th e r than ir o n ic ; the technique clumsy; the adventure had never become experience. For P o rte r th at was a ra re f a l l from grace. Two o th e r Mexican s t o r i e s , d ea lin g with the death o f 244 Innocence, ere minor m asterp ieces. "V irgin V iolet*" has as I t s background another Mexico — the upper c la s s Mexico of serv a n ts and European tra v e l and convent schools and country houses, rendered in m iniature but as convincingly as the country o f the poor In d ian s. The a c tio n is sim ple. f ; j Shy, rom antic, "almost f i f t e e n , " V lo le ta re c e iv e s her | i I I I ; f i r s t k is s from h er o ld e r cousin C arlo s, who w rite s poetry! and pays court to her o ld e r s i s t e r Blanca. But the k iss i , em otionally and s p i r i t u a l l y rapes the c h ild , s h a tte r in g ! her dream o f beauty and romantic lo ve. Unable to question! "Mamaclta" and unaware o f the s ig n ific a n c e o f what has occurred, she fe e ls only th a t: "Something dread fu l happened to me - - I d o n 't know w hat." (p. 31) The young g i r l ' s i n i t i a t i o n in to experience is told with g re a t s e n s i t i v i t y and grace: h er u n c e r ta in tie s about her appearance, h er romantic yearning fo r l i f e o u tsid e the convent, when she would become "m iraculously lo v e ly ," her love o f Carlos and the sensuous poems he has w ritte n which she has learned by h e a r t, uncomprehending. She yearns to escape her c h ild is h s e l f : "somethin In sid e her f e l t as I f i t were enclosed in a cage too sm ell fo r i t , and she could not b re a th e ." (p. 26) Her e ld e rs Ignore t h i s . Mamaclta chides h er c o n tin u a lly ; P apacito t e l l s her she needs "a good re n o v a tin g ," h is word fo r a spanking; B l a n c a , ab so rbed in h e r s e l f end the s e n s u a lity she shares ; 245 w ith C arlo s, looks upon her with contempt. Only Carlos is aware o f the woman In the c h ild , seeking to force — In Lawrence's words — her Into "knowingness" before her time. The Imagery suggests a te r r if y in g b ir d , as C arlos follows the g i r l with easy sureness Into the dark room to : find the m issing book; h is hand "came up In a curve" (p. 2 8 ) to hold her f a s t , h is eyes a f t e r he had kissed l her a re "b rig h t and shallow" lik e those o f a macaw, ( p . 2 9 ); i i She Is h e lp le s s , o f course; she knows th at no one i w ill b eliev e I t was o th e r than a co u sin ly k is s . I r o n i c a l l y , the knowledge th a t C a rlo s' k iss c re a te s Is the kind o f knowledge her paren ts and her whole c u l t u r a l m ilieu have taken enormous pains to p ro te c t h er from. She is kept fo r the most p a rt In a convent, where she Is taught; "modesty, c h a s t i t y , s ile n c e , obedience, with a l i t t l e French and music and some a r ith m e tic ." (p. 23) But lik e Henry James, P o rte r suggests th at there Is no defense a g a in st the knowledge o f e v i l and death. And with the same d e lic a te stro k e s she conveys an im pression o f d ep rav ity and c o rru p tio n ; C arlos l i f t i n g the frin g e on B lan ca's shawl, which s l i p s from her shoulders as she reads; Carlos t h r i l l i n g to the sound o f h is own voice while V lo leta w atches, d istu rb ed w ithout knowing why, the " tin y spot o f l i g h t on h is s l i g h t l y moistened 246 u n d e rlip ." (p. 2 3 ) The s to r y , s e t in the shadows, gains g re a t Impact from the suggestive d e t a i l s . Although obviously Influenced by James and by Joyce in i t s e x q u is ite a n a ly s is o f s t a t e s o f mind and f e e lin g , P o rte r may have gained much in h er treatm ent o f h o rro r and violence from such L atin American w rite rs as Horaelo Quiroga and o th ers whose works have been gaining p o p u la rity in re cen t years 42 ■ o u tsid e t h e ir own c o u n trie s . One o f h er g r e a te s t g i f t s Is her a b i l i t y to explore ! the h e a rts and minds o f c h ild re n , her profound sympathy with groping and a r t i c u l a t e beings, her concern with the c h ild as the battleground between forces o f good and e v i l - - a concern shared by o th e r w rite r s who sought the Mexican experience. Many o f her f i n e s t s t o r i e s focus on th a t moment in childhood when the f i r s t step s are taken along "The Downward Path to Wisdom."^3 "Virgin V lo le ta ," one o f her e a r l i e s t s t o r i e s was the f i r s t in th at p a tte r n . One o f the l a s t , "The Grave," which appears in the "Old O rder” sequence o f Miranda s t o r i e s , a ls o involves Mtoxlco, where death and l i f e are so In tim a te ly Involved. For i t Is th e re , on a very hot day in a market — "w ith i t s p ile s o f raw fle s h and w iltin g flow ers" th at the meaning o f the "mingled sweetness and co rru p tio n " she had smelled 2U7 a day twenty years e a r l i e r becomes c le a r to h er. Miranda and her o ld e r b ro th er P aul, who had been try in g u n su ccessfu lly to teach her how to shoot to k i l l , are In the fam ily cemetery. In the empty graves they d isco v er tre a s u re s l e f t when the bodies had been exhumed fo r I re b u r ia l in the public cem etery": a s l i v e r dove, the i | screw head fo r a c o f f in , and a wide gold rin g . When Paul | gives her the rin g , 9 -y e ar-o ld tomboy Miranda fe e ls the | i beginning o f womanhood: she wants to bathe, powder h e r s e l f with her s i s t e r ' s v io le t talcum, put on h er th in n e st and most becoming d re s s , and s i t In a wicker c h a ir under the tre e s , (p. 3^5) Her plan is In te rru p te d when Paul shoots a ra b b it and skins I t . Seeing the bloated b e lly , he s l i t s the f le s h , p u lls out the s c a r l e t bag and opens i t : . . . and there lay a bundle o f tiny r a b b its , each wrapped in a thin s c a r l e t v e i l. The b ro th er p u lled these o f f and there they were, dark grey, t h e i r sle e k wet down ly in g In minute even r i p p l e s , lik e a baby's head Ju st washed, t h e i r unbelievably sm all d e lic a te ears folded c lo s e , th e ir l i t t l e b lin d faces almost f e a tu r e le s s , (p. 3 6 6) Miranda wanted "most deeply to see and to know." She touches one o f the ra b b its and seein g the blood running over them "began to tremble w ithout knowing why." Then she r e a lis e s the mystery o f b ir th ; the ra b b its were about to be born — lik e k i t te n s , lik e babies. As Carlos had 248 covered V i o l e t s 's mouth to keep her from cry in g o u t, Paul awears her to secrecy : "Don't you ever t e l l a liv in g soul 1 f th at you saw th i s . Don't t e l l Dad because I ' l l get In tro u b le ." (p. 3 6 7) She did not — did not wish to. A fte r a few days o f r "confused unhappiness," the a f f a i r sank Into her mind to ; be "heaped over by accumulated thousands o f Im pressions, , I fo r n early twenty y e a rs ." (p. 3 6 7) Then, In the Mexican j : m a r k e t , t h e e p l B o d e l e a p e d f r o m i t s b u r i a l p l a c e : " S h e j ! was so re a s o n le s s ly h o r r if ie d she h a lte d suddenly s t a r i n g , j the scene before h er eyes dimmed by the v isio n back of them." (p. 367) She re a liz e d th a t the fa c ts o f l i f e and the f a c ts o f death were link ed In e x tric a b ly by c r u e lty , v io le n c e , shame, and p rid e . This f r u i t o f knowledge had been plucked and given to her to e a t by th a t 12-year-old f a lle n a n g e l, who had stood L u c lfe r-b rlg h t In the blazin g sun sh ine, "a pleased sober sm ile In h is eyes, turning the s i l v e r dove over and over In h is hands." (p. 3 6 8) The o u tstan d in g s to ry o f the Mexican experience — perhaps the f i n e s t o f a l l her s h o rt s t o r i e s and the one th at conveys more a r t i s t i c a l l y and t e l l i n g l y a l l of the meanings o f Mexico — Is "Flowering Ju d as." W ritten on a "very cold" December n ig h t In Brooklyn In 1 9 2 9# during one o f her p e rio d ic t r i p s n o rth o f the 2h9 bo rder, I t is the record o f the d e sp a ir su ffe re d by an I d e a l i s t i c young re v o lu tio n a ry who had responded so hopefully to the b a ttle c r y o f a decade e a r l i e r : "Land and l i b e r t y fo r a l l , f o r e v e r ! "* * * * When Miss P o rte r was asked by Ray 6. West why Laura was not c a lle d Miranda | since the m a te ria l Is so c l e a r l y p e rso n a l, she r e to r te d | th a t Laura was modeled on a f r ie n d , M a r y . **5 But i f the experience was not hers — and there are so many clu es 1 and p a r a l l e l s I t Is d i f f i c u l t to accept th at - - the "symbolic tru th " o f the s to ry was. In an explanatory note to the sto ry In 19*12 she s a id : The Idea f i r s t came to me one evening when going to v i s i t the g i r l I c a l l Laura In the s to r y . I passed the open window o f her liv in g room on my way to the door, through the sm all p a tio which Is one o f the scenes In the s to ry . I had a b r i e f glimpse o f h er s i t t i n g w ith an open book in her la p , but not read in g , w ith a fix ed look o f pained melancholy and confusion on her fa c e . The f a t man I c a l l Bragglonl was playin g the g u ita r and sin g in g to her. In th at glim pse, no more than a f la s h , I thought I understood, o r perceiv ed , fo r the f i r s t time, the d esp erate com plications o f her mind and f e e lin g s , and I knew a s to ry ; perhaps not her true s to r y , nor even the r e a l s to ry o f the whole s i t u a t i o n , but a l l the same a s to ry th at seemed symbolic tru th to me. I f I had not seen her face a t th a t very moment, I should never have w ritte n J u s t th is sto ry because I should not have known I t to w rite . Whether o r not she could have w ritte n the sto ry w ithout a glimpse o f M ary-Laura's face Is debatable* 250 What la not i s th at P o rte r had a c tu a lly known the ch a r a c te r s and events (which she acknowledged to be r e a l ) , I had watched with d e sp a ir the re v o lu tio n degenerate In to a co rru p t and b ru tis h conquest. The a r t i c l e s and essays she wrote In 1922 and 1923 form an e s s e n t i a l p a rt o f the j "epiphany" o f "Flowering Ju d as." i | | P o rte r had been led to Mexico by the b e l i e f th a t the i I | j s u ffe rin g and death demanded by the re v o lu tio n would b rin g I "happiness fo r men"; and i t seemed to her fo r a while th atj "a s t r a i g h t , undevlatlng purpose guided the working of the p l a n ."^7 As a r e s u l t , "many fin e things" had been growing out of the n a tio n a l s o i l - - things "only f a i n t l y surmised during the l a s t two o r three c e n tu rie s even by the Mexicans them selves." (p. 355) By 1929 what c a ta stro p h e had overtaken these "tru e / p a t r i o t s she had w ritte n about In 1922! Obregon, whom she had seen as "a man o f hardy good sense, an I n t e l l e c t u a l l y detached point o f view, and c iv i l iz e d instincts,"**® had done l i t t l e as P resid en t to a l t e r M exico's m ilita r y o lig arch y s t a t u s . The " c u ltu r a l m issions" Jose Vasconcelos had launched were not supple mented by the p re sid e n t with necessary p o l i t i c a l and economic reform . He did l i t t l e to r e - d i s t r i b u t e land to the In d ia n s: he fu rth e re d the c a re e r o f h is p ro teg e, 251 P lu ta rc o E lfa s C a lle s , who took over as p re sid e n t In 1923 and who was one of the most co rru p t d i c ta to r s the country has ever had. Obregon*s r e - e le c tio n in 1927 occurred in a wave o f p o l i t i c a l a s s a s s ln a tln s ; and a year l a t e r he, h im se lf, was shot by a r e lig io u s f a n a t i c , again leav in g the power of Mexico in the hands o f C alles and the i "F orty Thieves" gathered about him in the n a tio n 's i | u n o f f i c i a l c a p i t a l i n C u e r n a v a c a * 1 i O f t h o s e " t r u e p a t r i o t s , ” t h e g r e a t e s t b e t r a y a l h a d been e ffe c te d by Luis Morones, who I think, is recognizably! the Bragglonl o f the s to ry . Morones had captured the lo y a lty o f i d e a l i s t s a l l over the hemisphere concerned w ith s o c ia l J u s tic e in 1918, when he organized the f i r s t nationwide lab o r union in Mexico, the Confederaclon R e g i o n a l O b r e r a M e x i c a n s , t o i m p l e m e n t A r t i c l e 123 o f the C o n s titu tio n o f 1917# the "Magna C arta" o f la b o r. P o rte r was w ritin g o f h is e f f o r t s In 1 9 2 2t The hope o f the Labor p a rty is to e s t a b l i s h an in ter-d ep en d en t union w ith the South American s t a t e s , lead in g n a tu r a lly to c l e a r avenues of trade and communication w ith Europe* I t is the l o g ic a l sequence o f e v e n ts , and would be a tremendous source o f s tre n g th to Mexico. But i f the union is e s ta b lis h e d , i t w ill be an achievement o f fin e s s e which Mexico may take pride In; fo r the idea is ran k est treason to our high f in a n c ia l r ig h ts in th a t country. Luis Morones, p resen t c h ie f o f munitions fo r the Government, is the le a d e r of th is Labor p a rty . He is wholly In d ia n , a le a d e r by temperament, 252 executive and pow erful. His p rid e Is In h is f a c to r ie s and p la n ts , where the working co n d itio n s are id e a l, and the wage Is the h ig h est paid in the re p u b lic , (pp. 1 * 1 3- 1*0 j How was P o rte r o r how were any o f the i d e a l i s t s to know how Morones would respond to power? In h is l i b e r a l l y o rie n te d h is to ry o f Mexico, Lesley Byrd Simpson has r Morones1 rap id and u t t e r descent. Under the p ro te c tio n of / I | Obregon, Morones organized gangs o f thugs known as the | palanca (le v e r) to pry blackm ail from unw illin g employers, j He Induced r i v a l union members to Join the CROM, murdering; : lead e rs and o th e r people who got in h is way. (p. 275) Under C a lle s , h is power Increased. He was made M in iste r o f In d u s try , with power to s e t t l e strlk eB as he p leased . His l ie u te n a n ts , the Grupo Acclon« b u i l t country houses and trav e le d about In fin e c a rs ; "but the s h in ie s t c a r of a l l was the bomb-proof lim ousine of the diamond-bedecked le a d e r o f Mexico's em battled w orkers, Luis N. Morones." (p. 278) Laura, lik e Kurtz In The Heart o f Darkness and Gould In Nostromo. Is the v ictim of h er own a b s tr a c tio n s . How could she have known the r e a l nature o f the trap she had marched in to , banners fly in g ? For more than merely s e lf - d e lu s io n , the " c e n tra l Idea" o f the s to ry Is the p araly zin g a t t r a c t i o n o f the id e a .'’0 L au ra's dilemma Is thus the dilemma of s e c u la r modern man. In o rd e r f o r her 253 t o e x p r e s s h e r l o v e f o r h e r f e l l o w m e n , s h e h a s s u r r e n d e r e d h e r h e a r t a n d m i n d t o a p o l i t i c a l i n s t i t u t i o n t h a t d e n i e s h e r t h e r i g h t t o l o v e . S e p a r a t e d f r o m t h e m i n d , h e r h e a r t a t r o p h i e s a n d d i e s , m a k i n g i t p o s s i b l e f o r h e r t o c a r r y o u t a n y a t r o c i t y a g a i n s t t h e h u m a n i t y s h e h a s c o m m i t t e d h e r s e l f t o s a v e . T h a t L a u r a i s a w a r e o f t h e d e a d n e s s w i t h i n t h a t h a s r e s u l t e d f r o m h e r c a p i t u l a t i o n t o t h e a b s t r a c t I s I n d i c a t e d b y h e r e n v y i n g M r s . G r a g g i o n l , w h o c o u l d w e e p a b o u t a " c o n c r e t e w r o n g . " | j C o m m e n t i n g o n P o r t e r ' s s t r o n g p o l i t i c a l s e n s e , H a r r y J o h n | M o o n e y , J r . i n T h e F i c t i o n a n d C r i t i c i s m o f K a t h e r i n e A n n e P o r t e r » c a l l s t h e s t o r y a n i n s t a n c e o f m o d e r n h i s t o r y " I n j w h i c h s o m a n y n o b l e c o n c e p t s h a v e l e d t o s o m u c h h o r r o r a n d o p p r e s s i o n . S l i g h t a s t h e a c t i o n i s , l i m i t e d t h e n u m b e r o f c h a r a c t e r s , l o c a l i s e d t h e e v e n t s , t h e s t o r y i s s o s u g g e s t i v e a n d s o r i c h i n i d e a s t h a t I t r i p p l e s o u t f r o m t h e l i t t l e r o o m w h e r e L a u r a s i t s w i t h t h e r e v o l u t i o n a r y l e a d e r b e y o n d a l l o f M e x i c o t o e n c o m p a s s t h e h i s t o r y o f d o o m e d a n d d e a t h - b e n t m a n , p a s t a n d p r e s e n t — a n i m p r e s s i o n t h a t i s r e i n f o r c e d b y P o r t e r ' s u s e o f t h e h i s t o r i c a l p r e s e n t t e n s e . A n d t h e a c t i o n I s s l i g h t . L a u r a , a y o u n g A m e r i c a n I n M e x i c o t o w o r k i n t h e r e v o l u t i o n , h a s r e t u r n e d h o m e t o 25^ encounter — as she has each evening fo r a month — B raggionl, the le a d e r and h er employer. He sings to h e r, hoping to break through h er "notorious v i r g i n i t y . "52 D espising h is grossness and fe a rin g th at a "shocking" death w aits fo r her with "lesse n in g p a tie n c e ," (p. 9 3 ) | Laura l i s t e n s to him with " p i t i l e s s co urtesy" as he s in g s , ta lk s o f h is w ife, h is " s tu p id ” and "lazy" comrades who would cut h is th ro a t fo r nothing (p. 9 8 ) , and of Eugenio, j who is dying — perhaps alread y dead — a f t e r taking the i sleep in g ta b le ts Laura d e liv e re d to him. Unable to overcome h er r e s i s t a n c e , Braggion1 le a v e s , to re tu rn to h is w ife. Laura dreams th a t Eugenio Is c a l l i n g her to a f a r country. He gives her to e a t "warm, bleeding" flowerB from the Judas tr e e ; and when she e a ts them he c a l l s her "Murderer" and "C annibal." The sound of her voice crying a d e n ia l awakens h er; she is " a fra id to sleep a g a in ." (p. 1 0 2) C r i t ic s have d isa g re e d , sometimes v ig o ro u sly , about the meaning o f symbol and myth. Most seem to fav o r the i n te r p r e ta tio n o f Ray B. West, J r . , who has d e a lt with the s to ry e x te n siv e ly sin ce a t l e a s t 1 9 ^ 7 .^ He p oints out th a t the t i t l e is derived from E l i o t 's "Oerontion": In the Juvenescence o f the year Came C h ris t the ti g e r In depraved May, dogwood and c h e s tn u t, flow ering Judas, 255 To be e a te n , to be d iv id e d , to be drunk Among w hispers. The tr e e , then, Is a symbol o f b e tra y a l, and L aura's j e a tin g o f the Judas flow ers symbolises her b e tra y a l o f love In a l l modes — e r o t i c , s e c u la r , r e li g i o u s . Miss P o rte r agrees w ith th at I n te r p r e ta tio n : "And I suppose you d o n 't Invent symbolism. You d o n 't say, ' I am going I to have the flow ering Judas tre e stand fo r b e t r a y a l ,' j b u t, o f co u rse, I t does. "5** t j Laura, whose name suggests the "p e rfe c t" embodiment j | j | o f the Renaissance Id e a l, re p re se n ts the dead souls th a t | i i w estern men have become In the e f f o r t to suppress love j i and f e e lin g , the h e a rt and the I n s t i n c t s , the darker s e l f . Having renounced Roman C atholicism fo r Marxism, she has come to Mexico — u n in vited — wearing "the uniform o f an Id e a ." (p. 92) Like the L ieutenant In Graham G reene's The Power and the G lory, and there are many s i m i l a r i t i e s between them, she Is determined to c re a te happiness fo r men, not an g els. To c re a te th a t heaven on e a r t h , she has become an h ab ltu £ o f h e l l . D edicated to brotherhood and the ca u se, she has become Incapable o f love o f any kind. The c h ild re n she teaches "remain s tra n g e rs to her" (p. 97); she f e e ls no k in sh ip w ith h er comrades, the p riso n e rs and men In h id in g to whom she d e liv e rs messages, food, c i g a r e t t e s , and t h e i r f a v o r ite n a r c o tic s ; she r e je c t s the youth who serenades h e r, the young c a p ta in who wooed her; 256 Bragglonl*a gross advances: . . . the very c e l l s of her fle s h r e je c t Knowledge and Kinship In one monotonous word. No. No. No. She draws her s tre n g th from th is one holy tallsm anlc word which does not s u ffe r her to be led in to e v i l . (p. 97) Her e a rly c o n d itio n in g was medieval. W e Know o f her p ast th at she was born Roman C atholic and th at from her i i „ i e a rly t r a in in g , she has encased h e r s e lf is a s e t of I p rin c ip le s . . . leav in g no d e t a i l o f g estu re o r of ! p ersonal ta s te untouched." (p. 9 2 ) A e s th e tic a lly , she scorns the machine she has I n t e l l e c t u a l l y accepted; In her s p e c ia l group, "the machine Is sa c re d ," yet she loves and w ill wear only fin e lace c o l l a r s , (p. 92) E t h i c a l l y , she Is com ltted to c h a s t i t y , poverty, obedience, r e je c t in g a l l p le a su re s o f the fle s h . E m otionally, she s t i l l years fo r a liv in g f a i t h : she s l i p s Into a church o c c a sio n a lly to say a "H all Mary," but I t is "no good." (p. 92) A s tra n g e r In an u n fa m ilia r world (fo r which Mexico Is the m etaphor), she s u ffe rs — as S i s t e r Mary Bride has p e rc e p tiv e ly pointed out — from the medieval d isease of " a c c e d l a . " ^ Her w ill p aralyzed , she Is no longer able to maKe choices between good and e v i l . Miss P o r te r , h e r s e lf , wrote o f th is a f f l i c t i o n to her nephew, who was s u ffe rin g "an o b s tin a te depression o f s p i r i t s . "56 She speaKs o f I t s having been c o d ifie d 257 m edically ("th e old fashioned word was melancholy") and p sy ch o lo g ically : "the mixed-up s t a t e " in which soul and ( body as a r e s u l t o f sexual f r u s tr a tio n s are "a t p erp etu al feud w ith each o th e r and both a t war with the law and o rder o f s o c ie ty ." Confessing to having experienced such i t | black moods many tim es, she added: ! What r e a l ly I n te r e s ts me is the th e o lo g ic a l view. I t Is c a lle d a c c ld ia o r a c e d ia , th a t i s , D espair, and i t is o f the d e a d lie s t o f the seven deadly s in s . A ll d e sp a ir i s , of co u rse, In i t s deepest | n a tu re , d e sp a ir of God's mercy, and you can hardly do worse. I t comes n a tu r a lly from our in cu rab le sense of o r ig in a l s in , which Is o f sexual o r i g i n , Ju s t as the B ible says more or le s s two thousand years before Freud "discovered" i t ; the words are d i f f e r e n t , but the meaning is the same. (p. 1 1 5) Laura is s u ffe rin g from th at medieval d is e a s e , and no remedy fo r i t e x is ts in the s e c u la r world she had h o pefully sa id "yes" to: the world o f machines, r e v o lu tio n triumph o f the w i l l , slogans o f freedom and brotherhood, and o f M arxist " s a in ts " to lead d is c ip le s Into a land of "happiness" th a t turned out to be even more d e s o la te , more tru ly a waste land than the world she had given up and to which she could not re tu rn . Mexico p e r fe c tly re p resen ted th at waste la n d .57 Braggione epitom ises the "A n ti-C h rist" that Lawrence so Inveighed a g a in s t in The Plumed S e rp e n t. One o f those "benevolent" p o l i t i c i a n s and s o c i a l i s t s , he c a lle d them: 258 . . . surcharged w ith p ity fo r liv in g men, in t h e i r mouths, but r e a lly with h ate — the h ate o f the m a te r i a l i s t have-nots fo r the m a t e r i a l i s t h aves; they are the An11-ChrIst . . . C h ris t w ith r e a l poison In the communion c u p . 5 8 Bragglonl had once been so scrawny th a t " a l l h is bones showed under h is th in co tto n c lo th in g , and he could squeeze h is em ptiness to the very backbone w ith h is two j hands." (p. 9 8 ) But th a t was when he was "a poet and the ! re v o lu tio n was only a dream." (p. 9 8 ) Now h is gluttonous bulk "sw ells with ominous r ip e n e s s ." (p. 92) Love? C harity? Compassion? He had once had romantic notions about women, try in g to drown h im self a t f i f t e e n when h is f i r s t love laughed a t him. Now he b o a sts: "A thousand women have paid fo r th a t ." (p. 9 9 ) None le s s than Mrs. B ragglonl, "who works so hard fo r the good o f the fa c to ry g i r l s " and spends much o f h er l e i s u r e ly in g on the flo o r weeping fo r her husband sin ce "she never knows where nor when to look fo r him." (p. 9 9 ) The Saviour o f the People Is "always sy m p ath etic." He gives h is follow ers handfuls o f coins (sm all) from h is own pocket and sc o ffs to Laura: "They a re la z y , they are trea ch ero u s, they would cut my th ro at fo r n o th in g ." (p. 9 8 ) He p i t s them a g a in s t each o th e r fo r h is own p r o f i t . The e rs tw h ile poet c re a te s new m e tric a l p a tte rn s fo r h is hypnotized fo llo w e rs, Images o f 259 "gaping tren ch esj of crash in g w alls and broken bodies" (p. 100); and he punctuates h is re v o lu tio n a ry anthems with b u lle ts and shotgun and cannon b l a s t s : " P is to ls are i good, I love them, cannon are even b e t t e r , but In the end I pin my f a i t h to good dynam ite." (p. 100) He loves him self w ith such "tenderness and amplitude and e te r n a l c h a rity " th a t h is follow ers say to each o th e r: I "He has a r e a l n o b i l i t y , a love o f humanity ra is e d above I j | mere p erso n al a f f e c t i o n s ." (p. 91) And, o f co u rse, the p ro fe s s io n a l lo v e r o f humanity w ill never s u f f e r from th a t. P o rte r tw ists the knife in the fig u re she has c re a te d : He has the m alice, the c lv e rn e s s , the wickedness, the sharpness o f w it, the hardness of h e a r t, s tip u la te d fo r lov ing the world p r o f ita b ly . He w i l l never die o f I t . He w ill liv e to see him self kicked out from h is feeding trough by o th e r hungry w o rld -s a v lo rs . (p. 9 8 ) West has suggested th a t Bragglonl Is capable of redem ption, but Laura Is n o t, c i t i n g the foot-w ashing scene to e s ta b l i s h th a t. But th a t scene is the f i n a l Iro n ic s tro k e . When Bragglonl leaves Laura and re tu rn s to h is own house, he Is met by h is weeping wife — who has been weeping n ig h tly fo r the past month o f an absence th a t was designed to punish her. When he urges h er not to weep . . . She sa y s, "Are you t i r e d , my angel? S i t here 260 a n d I w i l l w a a h y o u r f e e t . " S h e b r i n g s a b o w l o f w a t e r * a n d k n e e l i n g * u n l a c e s h i s s h o e s * a n d w h e n f r o m h e r k n e e s s h e r a i s e s h e r s a d e y e s u n d e r h e r b l a c k e n e d l i d s * h e I I s s o r r y f o r e v e r y t h i n g a n d b u r s t s I n t o I t e a r s . " A h , y e s , I a m h u n g r y , I a m t i r e d * l e t u s e a t s o m e t h i n g t o g e t h e r , " h e s a y s * [ b e t w e e n s o b s . H i s w i f e l e a n s h e r h e a d o n h i s a r m a n d s a y s * " F o r g i v e m e ! " a n d t h i s t i m e h e i s r e f r e s h e d b y t h e s o l e m n * e n d l e s s j r a i n o f h e r t e a r s , ( p . 1 0 1 ) i T h e s p e c t a c l e o f t h e b u l l i e d a n d b e a t e n w o m a n p e r f o r m i n g ; ! t h e r i t u a l M a r y M a g d a l e n e h a d p e r f o r m e d a s a n a c t o f i c h a r i t y f o r C h r i s t I s g r o t e s q u e — a l l t h e m o r e w h e n o n e c o n s i d e r s t h e c a r e f u l d e s c r i p t i o n o f B r a g g l o n l d r a w n e a r l i e r : w e a r i n g h i s l a v e n d e r c o l l a r a n d p u r p l e n e c k t i e t h a t I s h e l d b y a d i a m o n d h o o p * w i t h h i s t o o l e d l e a t h e r a m m u n i t i o n b e l t w o r k e d I n s i l v e r * h i s g l o s s y y e l l o w s h o e s * h i s m a u v e s i l k h o s e " s t r e t c h e d t a u t " o v e r h i s f a t f e e t a n d a n k l e s , ( p p . 92- 93) I t I s B r a g g l o n l * o f c o u r s e * w h o h a s I n t r o d u c e d L a u r a t o t h a t s e x u a l l y g e n e r a t e d " o r i g i n a l s i n " a n d u l t i m a t e l y t o d e s p a i r * t h e d e a d l i e s t o f a l l s i n s . L a u r a * w h o m a y w a l k a n y w h e r e I n t h e v i o l e n t c i t y w i t h s a f e t y b e c a u s e s h e h a s d e n i e d e v e r y t h i n g ( p . 9 7 ) # c a n n o t d e n y t h e k n o w l e d g e B r a g g l o n l h a s I n f l i c t e d u p o n h e r . S h e h a s * d e s p i t e h e r n a t u r a l w o m a n l i n e s s * a s i s I n d i c a t e d b y r e p r e a t e d r e f e r e n c e s t o h e r " g r e a t r o u n d b r e a s t s * " r e j e c t e d t h e a p p e a l s o f t h e s i n g i n g y o u t h I n t h e p a t i o a n d t h e y o u n g a p t a l n I n Z a p a t a ' s a r m y w h o h a d e x p r e s s e d d e s i r e f o r 261 h e r . T h e y r e p r e s e n t l l f e - s e x . I n s t e a d , s h e h a s a c c e p t e d t h e d e a t h - s e x o f B r a g g l o n l * s w a s t e l a n d r e v o l u t i o n . A s t h e y s p e a k o f l o v e a n d l o v e r s , s h e o i l s a n d l o a d s h i s p i s t o l s I n a s c e n e o f a l m o s t v i o l e n t l y p h a l l i c I m a g e r y : " L a u r a p e e r s d o w n t h e p i s t o l b a r r e l a n d s a y s n o t h i n g , b u t a l o n g s l o w f a i n t n e s s r i s e s a n d s u b s i d e s I n h e r . " ( p . 1 0 0 ) ! i I n h e r n u n - l l k e g a r b , s h e s e r v e s B r a g g l o n l a s d e a t h * s j d i s c i p l e . T h e n a r c o t i c s s h e h a s d e l i v e r e d t o E u g e n i o , w i t h w h i c h h e h a s k i l l e d h i m s e l f , a r e t h e " c o m m u n i o n j w a f e r s " s h e h a s a d m i n i s t e r e d f o r t h e A n t i - C h r i s t . S h e , ! t o o , i s a s m u c h I n l o v e w i t h d e a t h a s E u g e n i o . I n a m o m e n t o f I n s i g h t , L a u r a r e a l i s e s t h a t s h e I s a s c o r r u p t , " a s c a l l o u s , a s I n c o m p l e t e " a s B r a g g l o n l . T h e r e I s n o w h e r e t o g o b u t t o d e a t h ' s o t h e r k i n g d o m - - b e y o n d t h e p l a c e s h e h a s b e e n l e d t o b y t h e J u d a s t r e e : t h e J a g g e d w a v e o f a s e a t h a t w a s n o t w a t e r b u t a d e s e r t o f c r u m b l i n g s t o n e . " ( p . 1 0 2 ) F i v e y e a r s l a t e r M i s s P o r t e r c r e a t e d a n o t h e r m e m o r a b l e M e x i c a n d e a t h - s c a p e . H a c i e n d a , t h e s h o r t n o v e ^ w h i c h c o n c l u d e s t h e v o l u m e F l o w e r i n g J u d a s a n d O t h e r S t o r i e s , s u p p o r t s h e r a s s e r t i o n I n t h e f o r e w o r d t h a t : M o s t o f t h e e n e r g i e s o f m y m i n d a n d s p i r i t h a v e b e e n s p e n t I n a n e f f o r t t o g r a s p t h e m e a n i n g o f t h o s e t h r e a t s ( o f w o r l d c a t a s t r o p h e ) , t o t r a c e t h e m t o t h e i r s o u r c e s a n d t o u n d e r s t a n d t h e l o g i c o f t h i s m a j e s t i c a n d t e r r i b l e f a i l u r e o f t h e l i f e o f m a n i n t h e W e s t e r n w o r l d . 262 Mooney p o in ts out th a t Hacienda, lik e "The Leaning Tower," which r e f l e c t s the B e rlin experience she had had Ju s t j i a f t e r Mexico, deals with p o l i t i c a l concepts - - not as they are ch ro n ic le d In h e a d lin e s , "but only as th e ir m y steriou s, d e s tru c tiv e force is f e l t by the in d iv id u a l. W ritten In r e tr o s p e c t (193*0# Hacienda p re se n ts a J d if f e r e n t kind o f re p o rt than the a r t i c l e s o f the 1920*8 j th a t d e a lt w ith the p o s t-re v o lu tio n a ry p erio d . I t Is a I i | d e v a s ta tin g view of the waste land In which the fe u d a l- i i minded owners o f a vast pulque e s t a t e and the Communist j movie makers are leagued in t h e ir a b s tr a c tio n s and th e ir re ad in ess to e x p lo it the Indian peons fo r t h e i r own purposes: p r o f i t s and propaganda. In I t s s tin g in g Irony and i t s acknowledgement o f the pervasiveness o f e v i l and c o rru p tio n . Hacienda p o in ts forward to fche Ship o f F o o ls. I t Is g e n e ra lly considered , as Hendrick has pointed o u t, the " l e a s t p o p u lar” o f Miss P o rter* s n o v e l s . ^ The two charges le v e le d from the f i r s t have been what Is c a lle d I t s "ln conclu slveness" and the f a i l u r e o f the n a r r a to r to "go beyond the su rfa ce of any given situ a tio n ." S h o rtly a f t e r I t appeared, fo r example, Howard Baker wrote th a t although the auth or had succeeded " b e a u tifu lly " In c a p tu rin g the p ro p e rtie s of things and p la c e s. "There i s , however, an lncon clu slv eness In th is s to r y , a lack o f 263 a bold theme, o r o f a stu rd y f a b l e . "^3 Mooney, who a ls o says th a t the novel has no r e a l p lo t In comparison to any of Miss P o r t e r 's o th e r f i c t i o n s ," charges that the n a r r a to r has "no in te g r a l function In the sto ry I t s e l f , makes no comment on I t , and seems to serve mainly as , it 6 4 I r e p o r te r . j ! | In my view, the s to ry has a conclusive p l o t , a "bold" 1 theme; and I b eliev e th a t the n a r r a t o r 's function Is as ! i i j I n te g r a l to both as the function o f Nick Carraway Is I in te g r a l to The Qreat Oatsby o r Marlow's function is to The Heart of D arkness. Hacienda Is a sto ry of the n a r r a t o r 's i n i t i a t i o n Into e v i l and the r e a l iz a t io n o f the pow erlessness o f the In d iv id u a l to cope with the s o u l - l e s s , s p i r i t l e s s , lif e - d e s tr o y in g conquerors who feed on the flow ers o f b e tra y a l. Seeing the h o rro r, unable to combat I t , the n a r r a t o r 's only recourse was f l i g h t ; "I could not w ait fo r tomorrow In th is d ea th ly a i r , " she r e je c t s promises o f fu tu re change and admits d e s p a i r . ^ The sto ry grew out o f Miss P o r t e r 's experience In 1929 w ith the making o f a film p ra is in g the Mexican re v o lu tio n by S erg e i E ls e n s te lp , the Communist d ir e c to r on leave from R ussia fo r the propaganda e f f o r t . The film was subsid ized by a group o f U.S. sym pathizers led by 26U U p t o n S i n c l a i r a n d h i s w i f e . I t i n v o l v e s a b r o a d s p e c t r u m o f M e x i c a n s o c i a l t y p e s — f r o m I n d i a n p e o n s t o t h e M e x i c a n g o v e r n m e n t o f f i c i a l s a n d t h e a t e r p e o p l e t o t h e o w n e r s o f t h e h a c i e n d a , D o n O ^ n e r o a n d h i s w i f e , w h o s e l a n d s a n d w e a l t h h a v e d e s c e n d e d i n u n b r o k e n s u c c e s s i o n ✓ s i n c e t h e d a y s o f C o r t e s . T h u s , g a t h e r e d f o r t h e o c c a s i o n a r e p e o p l e w h o r e p r e s e n t s i g n i f i c a n t m o v e m e n t s i n W e s t e r n h i s t o r y f o r t h e l a s t f i v e h u n d r e d y e a r s . A b r i e f a c c o u n t o f t h e m a k i n g o f t h e f i l m m a y b e o f s o m e i n t e r e s t a n d r e l e v a n c e . E l s e n s t e l n h a d o r i g i n a l l y p l a n n e d a n e p i c m o v i e i n s i x p a r t s j * Q u e V i v a M e x l c o l j J j j ( L o n g L i v e M e x i c o .M T h e f i l m w a s t o c o v e r t h e h i s t o r y o f ! ' I t h e c o u n t r y . O n l y o n e s e c t i o n w a s a c t u a l l y f i n i s h e d a n d j d i s t r i b u t e d c o m m e r c i a l l y i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s : P a r t T h r e e , j a r o m a n t i c s t o r y d e a l i n g w i t h t h e e x p l o i t a t i o n a n d d e g r a d a t i o n o f t h e I n d i a n s b y o w n e r s o f a n h a c i e n d a d e d i c a t e d t o g r o w i n g m a g u e y c a c t u s e s , t h o s e a l l - p u r p o s e p l a n t s w h i c h p r o d u c e p u l q u e , t h e c h i e f e s c a p e o f t h e M e x i c a n p o o r . M u c h o f t h e f i l m w a s s h o t a t T e t l a p a l j a c , a b e a u t i f u l h a c i e n d a s o u t h o f M e x i c o C i t y . A l t h o u g h t h e C o n s t i t u t i o n o f 1 9 1 7 * t h e c u l m i n a t i o n o f t h e r e v o l u t i o n , h a d p l e d g e d t h a t o l d l a n d g r a n t h o l d i n g s w o u l d b e b r o k e n u p a n d r e d i s t r i b u t e d t o t h e d i s p o s s e s s e d I n d i a n s , t h e h a c i e n d a 265 w a s s t i l l i n t h e h a n d s o f t h e S a l d w a r f a m i l y , a s I t h a d b e e n s i n c e t h e C o n q u e s t . ^ N o t h i n g s e e m e d t o g o a c c o r d i n g t o s c h e d u l e . V a s t a m o u n t s o f u n u s a b l e f i l m r o l l e d o u t o f t h e c a m e r a , a n d m o n e y v a n i s h e d . T h e S i n c l a i r s d e c i d e d t o p r o t e c t t h e p r o j e c t b y s e n d i n g H u n t e r K i m b r o u g h , M r s . S i n c l a i r ' s b r o t h e r , t o M e x i c o t o s u p e r v i s e t h e p r o d u c t i o n . I n e x p e r i e n c e d a t f i l m m a k i n g a n d a p p a r e n t l y a p r u d i s h y o u n g m a n , h e p r e c i p i t a t e d f u r t h e r c h a o s . S i n c l a i r s a i d l a t e r o f h i m a n d o f t h e a f f a i r : I d o u b t i f h e h a d e v e r h e a r d o f s u c h a t h i n g a s a h o m o a n d h e w a s b e w i l d e r e d t o f i n d h i m s e l f I n s u c h c o m p a n y . H e d i s c o v e r e d E l s e n s t e l n w a n t e d ! m o n e y , m o n e y , m o n e y , a n d n e v e r h a d t h e s l i g h t e s t | I d e a o f k e e p i n g a n y p r o m i s e h e m a d e . W h e n K i m b r o u g h , o b e y i n g m y o r d e r s , t r i e d t o l i m i t t h e m o n e y a n d t h e s u b j e c t s s h o t , t h e r e w e r e f u r i o u s r o w s . 67 T h e s h o r t n o v e l s t a r t s o f f w i t h a s a v a g e p i c t u r e o f K i m b r o u g h ( K e n n e r l y , a s h e I s c a l l e d f o r c h a r i t y ' s a n d | l i b e l ' s s a k e ) . T h e n a r r a t o r , a c c o m p a n i e d b y a n a s s i s t a n t I t o U s p e n s k y ( E l s e n s t e l n ) , m e e t s K e n n e r l y a t t h e r a i l r o a d s t a t i o n t o J o u r n e y t o t h e h a c i e n d a . S h e I s a p p a l l e d b y h i m : " I w a s t h i n k i n g t h a t f o r e i g n e r s a n y w h e r e t r a v e l i n g w e r e t h r e e o r f o u r k i n d s o f p h o n o g r a p h r e c o r d s , a n d o f t h e m a l l I l i k e d K e n n e r l y » s k i n d t h e l e a s t . " ® ® A s t h e y r i d e t h r o u g h t h e v a l l e y o f t h e p y r a m i d s , s h e f e e l s a k i n d o f k i n s h i p w i t h A n d r e y e v , t h e R u s s i a n f i l m m a k e r . K e n n e r l y s w i g s b e e r a n d e a t s c h o c o l a t e s ( t h e o n l y f o o d h e 266 t r u s t s ) , r a i l s a g a in st the country: the h e a t, the food, the w ater, the m osquitoes, the cockroaches, the people — the peasants who "sm ell" and the government o f f i c i a l s with whom I t was " g r a f t , b rib e , g r a f t , bribe . . . from morning to n ig h t." (p. 139) Above a l l , there were h is | ! > . i I co lleag u es In the v en tu re: "Eight months spent as I ! business manager fo r three Russian m ovlng-plcture men In j i Mexico had about fin ish e d him o f f , he to ld me, q u ite as | j though Andreyev, one o f the th re e , were not p re s e n t." (P. 139) When Kennerly f a l l s asleep over a th ird b o ttle of b e e r, the n a r r a to r and Andreyev d iscu ss the p ic tu re . As the n a r r a to r records with fin e detachment what was s a id , readers* knowledge o f the hollowness o f these w estern men grow. Andreyev, th at a p o s tle o f the brave new world, Is overjoyed a t having found J u s t the r ig h t place fo r h is p ic tu r e : the o ld -fash io n ed feudal e s ta te and "the p u re st type o f peons." I t was, he s a id , "almost too good to be tru e ." (p. lU2 ) As they look a t the s t i l l s Andreyev shows h e r, the n a r r a to r becomes aware o f how the camera had seen the unchanged world as a landscape with fig u re s — "but 1 H fig u re s under a doom Imposed by the landscape. She notes th a t the c lo se d , dark faces were " f u l l o f I . . . in s t in c tiv e s u f f e r in g , without In d iv id u al memory, o r only the kind o f memory animals may have, who when they f e e l the ship know they s u f f e r but do not know why and cannot imagine a remedy." (p. 142) For h e r, the fu n e ra l | p ro c e ssio n s, the clasped hands of lo v e rs , the Indian j working beside the maguey re v e a l "formal t r a d i t i o n a l i t r a g e d y , b e a u t i f u l a n d h o l l o w . " F o r A n d r e y e v , i t I s a l l i merely "p ic tu re sq u e ." (p .l4 2 ) P o rte r then continues in one o f the most p ercep tiv e passages w ritte n about Mexico: j The camera eye had caught and fixed in moments of violence and se n se le s s excitem ent, of c r u e l liv in g and to rtu re d death , the almost e s t a t l c death-expectancy which is in the a i r o f Mexico. The Mexicans may know when the danger is r e a l , o r they may not care whether the t h r i l l is f a ls e o r tr u e , but s tra n g e rs f e e l the acid o f death in t h e i r bones whether o r not any r e a l danger is near them . . . In the Indian the love o f death had become a h a b it o f the s p i r i t . I t had smoothed out and polish ed the faces to a repose so ab so lu te i t seemed s tu d ie d , though stu d ied fo r so long i t was now held w ithout e f f o r t ; and in them a l l was a common memory o f d e fe a t. The pride o f t h e i r bodily posture was the mere outward shade o f p a ssiv e , profound r e s is ta n c e ; the l i f t e d , arro g an t fe a tu re s were a mockery o f the serv a n ts who liv e d w ith in , (p. 143) In s h a rp e st c o n t r a s t, the n a r ra to r immediately Introduces the "very gay" sto ry of L o lita , the a c t r e s s , / and Dona J u l i a , the wife o f Don Qenaro, the m aster o f the pulque hacienda. The tria n g le had begun co nv en tio n ally ✓ enough w ith an a f f a i r between L o lita and Don Qenaro, who was "very o ld -fash io n ed in h is ta s te fo r la d le s o f the 268 t h e a t e r .*1 (p. 143) Dorfa J u l i a , so modern in h er Chinese costume made by a Hollywood d e sig n e r, had behaved a t f i r s t in an eq u a lly o ld -fash io n ed way — th re a te n in g to k i l l / L o lita and then making Don Qenaro Jealous by f l i r t i n g with o th e r men. But during two days o f Don Qenaro's j absence, the balance s h if te d ; the two women became l o v e r s , j and Don Qenaro — who had **no precedent whatever fo r a ; j I husband's conduct In such a situation** — made a scene in ! i i t i ! which he pretended to be Jealous o f one of the Mexican ! ad v isers to Uspensky, (p. 145) Ai they continue to look a t the s t i l l s , Andreyev t e l l s h er o f the "help" they have been re c e iv in g from government o f f i c i a l s and censors on hand to see th at i f anything not b e a u tif u l got In the way o f the camera "the scandal went no f u r th e r than the c u ttin g room." (p. 146) A fte r a l l , the government was eager to "improve th is o p p o rtu n ity to film a g lo rio u s h is to ry o f Mexico, her wrongs and s u ffe rin g s and h er f i n a l triumph through the l a t e s t re v o lu tio n " ; I t was, th e re fo re , not unexpected th a t a l l o f them were so "devoted" to a r t . (p. 46) The stag e Is thus s e t through one Iro n ic re v e la tio n a f t e r an other fo r the c e n tr a l episode. That begins when the young Indian boy playing the lead in the film boards the tr a in a t the s ta t i o n before 269 the hacienda In o rder to share the news. J u s t l n o , a l 6 -y e a r-o ld peon who Is a lso fe atu red In the film* had borrowed a p i s t o l ; while playing with I t , he shot and k ille d h is s i s t e r . T e r r i f i e d , he threw the p i s t o l away and ran toward the mountains to h id e. His fr ie n d , V icente, has brought him back to the v illa g e and to J a i l . The event p a r a lle le d In " r e a l i ty " the one being depicted in the film , and a l l have p a r a l l e l ro le s . What Is of consequence in P o r t e r 's s to ry , however, isj i the re a c tio n to the g l r l 'B death and her brother*s Imprisonment. Kennerly groans a t the p o s s i b i l i t y o f a law s u i t . But he Is quickly q uieted by Andreyev, who o rd e rs him to s i t down and stop giving the Indians "strange notions not necessary to anybody's peace o f mind." (p. 1U8) Andreyev f u rth e r seeks to d i s p e l l the "strange notions" by p u llin g the boy down beside him In a "comradely" s o r t of way. He and Kennerly are united In r e s i s t i n g the n a r r a t o r , who asks p o in te d ly : "Surely they would not have had loaded p is to ls among those being used In the p ic tu r e ." (p. 1 5 0) The g i r l ' s death is re a d ily dism issed by those a t the hacienda - - n a tiv e s and fo re ig n e rs , p a tr 6n and compadres a lik e . Don Qenaro had. In the t r a d i t i o n a l manner, crossed h er hands, closed h er eyes, and lig h te d a 270 candle. The Indiana f e e l , too, th a t ev ery th in g Is In o rd e r — they I n s i s t on t h a t , "p io u sly , t h e i r eyes dancing w ith r i c h , enjoyable f e e lin g s ." (p. 1 5 0) B etancourt re a d ily and "anonymously" emtombs the g i r l with h is easy words: " i t Is a trag ed y ," but when one co n sid ers what her l i f e would have been In th a t p lace , " i t Is much b e t t e r th at she Is dead." (p. 152) Dona J u l i a , alone w ith her Pekinese since L o lita took o f f a f t e r a q u a rre l ! with Don Genaro, agrees th a t I t was "sad," but adds i i c a s u a lly : "They are an im als." (p. 1 6 9) Uspensky Is too preoccupied with h is own h e a lth to co n sid er the m atter a t a l l . For Carlos Montana, the composer, i t Is a chance to turn " r e a lity " once more Into I ll u s i o n . He o u tlin e s the c o rrld o (b a lla d ) he w i l l make, w ith the dead g i r l the h ero in e: Ah, poor l i t t l e R o sa llta Took h e r s e lf a new lo v e r, Thus b etra y in g the h e a r t 's core Of h er Impassioned b ro th er . . ." (p. 1 6 0) The f i n a l o b itu a ry Is spoken by Kennerly, who suddenly remembers th a t the footage o f the shooting In the film had not turned out very w ell. I f only someone had thought about th at a t the time o f the r e a l sho o tin g , he reproaches one of the Russian movie men: "We could have got a clo se-u p o f the g i r l , r e a l ly dead, and r e a l blood I running down J u s t i n o 's face where Vicente h i t him, and 271 my God! we never even thought of t h a t . ” (p. 1 6 3) J u s t l n o 's Imprisonment i s ano ther m atter — o r so i t seems fo r a while — since he Is needed fo r the p ic tu re to co n tin u e. Don Genaro rid e s o f f to the v illa g e to see the Judge, re tu rn in g quickly in a rage. The Judge has In s is te d th at the law "does not recognize ac c id e n ts In the v ulgar se n se ." However, he w i l l re le a s e J u s tln o fo r | a co n sid e ra tio n o f two thousand pesos. / J The money is obviously nothing to Don Genaro. The ! vast p r o f i t s he d eriv e s from the s a le of pulque to the Indians allows him to indulge his every d e s ire — fo r f a s t women, f a s t anim als, and anything w ith machinery in i t . But In the way o f a l l m a t e r i a l i s t s , he tr a n s la te s what he co nsiders an a f fro n t to h is •*honor" ( I . e . purse) In to a m atter o f " p r in c ip le ." He decides suddenly, and with a human l i f e the only luxury involved^ th at he is tir e d o f paying here and th e re . In s te a d , he w ill go to Velarde. Detached from the r e a l i t y o f In d iv id u als and human l i f e , everyone — r e ta in e r s and communist movie makers ~ agree th a t Velarde Is the "man to s e e ." (p. 156) The 'Vnost powerful and su c c e ssfu l r e v o lu tio n is t in Mexico," he had emerged from th a t episode o f "blessed memory" In proper co n d itio n to understand what Don Oenaro was 272 " c o n t e n d i n g w i t h . " H e , t o o , w a s a n e m p l o y e r ; h e t o o , h a d a c q u i r e d m o n e y a n d p o w e r , c o n t r o l l i n g t h e a r m y a n d a b a n k . H e o w n e d n o t o n e p u l q u e h a c i e n d a , b u t t h e t w o t h a t h a d f a l l e n t o h i m w h e n " t h e g r e a t r e p a r t i t i o n o f l a n d h a d t a k e n p l a c e . " H e h a d t h e l a r g e s t d a i r y f a r m I n M e x i c o , f u r n i s h i n g I t s p r o d u c t s t o e v e r y c h a r i t a b l e I n s t i t u t i o n I n t h e c o u n t r y a t t w i c e t h e p r i c e s t h a t a n y o t h e r d a i r y f a r m w o u l d h a v e a s k e d ! H e w a s , M i s s P o r t e r s a y s I r o n i c a l l y , " p r e c i s e l y " t h e m a n t o u n d e r s t a n d t h e p r o b l e m s o f t h e f e u d a l l a n d o w n e r . E v e r y o n e k n o w s - - m o s t o f a l l D o n G e n a r o - - t h a t t h e ; J u d g e w i l l o r d e r J u s t l n o s h o t u n l e s s t h e m o n e y I s p a i d . . . u n l e s s , t h a t I s , V e l a r d e s e n d s o r d e r s . I n t h a t c a s ^ D o f t a J u l i a r e m i n d s t h e m , " t h i n k o f h o w O e n a r o w i l l h a v e t o p a y V e l a r d e . Y e t e v e r y o n e a p p l a u d s t h e " f i g h t . " I t i s a r e l i e f f r o m t h e b o r e d o m t h a t m a k e s s o w e a r i s o m e t h e h e l l t h e y i n h a b i t . S e c r e t l y , t h e y y e a r n f o r J u s t l n o ' s d e a t h - - e v e n t h e I n d i a n s . D e a t h , a l o n e , p e n e t r a t e s t h e a b s t r a c t i o n s ; d e a t h h a s a s e m b l a n c e o f r e a l i t y . H a c i e n d a r e v e a l s m o r e c l e a r l y t h a n a n y o f P o r t e r ' s o t h e r w o r k , w i t h t h e p o s s i b l e e x c e p t i o n o f " T h e L e a n i n g T o w e r , " t h e a m p l i t u d e o f h e r a r t . I t i s , I n b r i e f , a h i s t o r y o f w e s t e r n m a n f o r t h e l a s t f i v e h u n d r e d y e a r s , e x p l o r i n g t h e m e a n i n g o f t h e s i g n i f i c a n t p o l i t i c a l a n d e c o n o m i c s y s t e m s e v o l v i n g f r o m t h e b e g i n n i n g o f t h e R e n a i s s a n c e : c o l o n i a l i s m , c o m m u n i s m , l i b e r t a r i a n i s m , l a l s s e s f a l r e a n d m o n o p o l i s t i c c a p i t a l i s m . U n d e r a l l , " t h e p e o p l e " - - a s t h e I n d i a n s a r e c o n c e i v e d t o b e — h a v e s u f f e r e d e x p l o i t a t i o n a n d o p p r e s s i o n t o g r a t i f y t h e d e s i r e s o f t h e u n c a r i n g f e w , w h e t h e r t h e i r p o w e r w a s i d e r i v e d f r o m i n h e r i t a n c e o r w i t h t h e c o n s e n t o f t h e ! | v i c t i m s . I t i s a n i m p r e s s i v e s o c i o l o g i c a l s t u d y : t h e I | c a r e f u l l y c h a r a c t e r i s e d i n d i v i d u a l s a r e a l s o s o c i a l t y p e s , r e f l e c t i n g t h e w h o l e r a n g e o f M e x i c a n s o c i e t y a n d s o m e o f R u s s i a n a n d U . S . s o c i e t y a s w e l l . H a c i e n d a i s a p s y c h o l o g i c a l s t u d y — s o c i a l a n d a b n o r m a l . I t i s a p r o f o u n d m o r a l a n d p s y c h o l o g i c a l s t a t e m e n t . N o t f i n a l l y , i t i s h i g h a r t : e a c h p i c t u r e i s p r e s e n t e d w i t h s u c h d e t a c h m e n t a n d e a c h s c e n e w i t h s u c h a r r e s t i n g d e t a i l t h a t I t p r o d u c e s I n r e a d e r s t h e f a s c i n a t i o n a n d h o r r o r o f B r e u g h e l ^ " P a l l o f I c a r u s , ” T h a t i s b e c a u s e e a c h d e t a i l , e a c h i m a g e , e a c h e p i s o d e I s f a s h i o n e d w i t h l a y e r u p o n l a y e r o f m e a n i n g . T h e s e t t i n g , f o r e x a m p l e , I s t h e p u l q u e h a c i e n d a , t h e a c t i o n o c c u r r i n g a g a i n s t I t s c e a s e l e s s p r o d u c t i o n . T h e w h i t e f l o o d o f p u l q u e f l o w e d w i t h o u t p a u s e ; a l l o v e r M e x i c o t h e I n d i a n s w o u l d d r i n k t h e c o r p s e - w h i t e l i q u o r , s w a l l o w f o r g e t f u l n e s s a n d e a s e b y t h e r i v e r f u l , a n d t h e m o n e y w o u l d f l o w s i l v e r - w h i t e I n t o t h e g o v e r n m e n t t r e a s u r y ; D o n O e n a r o a n d h l s f e l l o w - h a c e n d a d o s w o u l d f r e t a n d 2fk c u rse , the A grarians would r a i d , and am bitious p o l i t i c i a n s In the c a p i t a l would be s te a lin g r ig h t and l e f t to buy such haciendas fo r them selves. I t was a l l arranged, (p. 168) I T h e s m e l l a n d s o u n d o f p u l q u e p e r v a d e t h e a c t i o n : t h e t h i c k v a p o r r i s i n g t h r o u g h " t h e h e a v y d r o n e o f f l i e s , s o u r , s t a l e , l i k e r o t t i n g m i l k a n d b l o o d . ” ( p . l 6 l ) ; T h r o u g h t h e w i n d o w s a n d w a l l s o f t h e " p u f f y " a n d " g l o s s y " i a n d " r e B t l e s s ” r o o m o f D o n a J u l i a c o m e t h e r u m b l e o f i i b a r r e l s r o l l i n g d o w n w o o d e n t r e s t l e s f r o m t h e v a t r o o m | S a n d " t h e l o n g c h a n t i n g c r y o f t h e I n d l a n s . ” ( p . l 6 l ) T h e \ I | s t i n k i n g v a t - r o o m , w h e r e l i q u o r i s f e r m e n t e d I n c o n - j 1 i t a i n e r s o f h a i r y b u l l h l d e t h a t s a g b e t w e e n w o o d e n f r a m e s , I s i r o n i c a l l y p r e s i d e d o v e r b y t h e r e l i c s o f M e x i c a n r e l i g i o n s o l d a n d n e w " Marfa S a n t l s l m a . . . I n h e r b l u e p a i n t e d n i c h e i n a f r a m e o f f l y - b r o w n p a p e r f l o w e r s " ; a n d o n t h e w a l l a f a d e d f r e s c o s h o w i n g t h e m y t h o l o g i c a l g i r l w h o d i s c o v e r e d " t h i s d i v i n e l i q u o r ” a n d b r o u g h t i t t o t h e e m p e r o r . A c c o r d i n g t o t h e s t o r y , h e r e w a r d e d h e r w e l l , a n d " a f t e r h e r d e a t h s h e b e c a m e a h a l f - g o d d e s s . " (p. 165) T h e b e v e r a g e , " b l e s s e d " a m o n g p a g a n s a n d C h r i s t i a n s a l i k e , e n a b l e s t h e e x p l o i t e r s t o u s e t h e I n d i a n s t o c a r r y o u t t h e i r o w n d e s t r u c t i o n p h y s i c a l l y , s p i r i t u a l l y , m o r a l l y . . . i n s t e a d o f u n i t i n g a g a i n s t t h e e x p l o i t e r s . J u s t l n o k i l l s h i s s i s t e r ; V i c e n t e p u r s u e s a n d c a p t u r e s h i s f r i e n d , J u s t l n o . T h e w o r k e r s o n t h e h a c e l n d a d r i v e 275 o f f t h e A g r a r i a n r a i d e r s s e e k i n g J u s t i c e f o r t h e m w i t h r i f l e s a n d p i s t o l s g i v e n b y t h e m e n w h o h a v e u s u r p e d t h e i r l a n d , " T h e y h a d t h e t i m e o f t h e i r l i v e s " d o i n g t h a t , P o r t e r n o t e s b i t t e r l y , ( p . 1 6 5) T h e c o m p u l s i o n t o w a r d s e l f - d e s t r u c t i o n I s a n a l y z e d I n a s i n g l e e p i s o d e t h a t o c c u r s a s t h e n a r r a t o r a n d h e r c o m p a n i o n s d r i v e t o w a r d t h e h a c i e n d a : A b i g r a b b i t l e a p e d a c r o s s t h e t r a c k , c h a s e d b y l e s s h u n g r y d o g s . I t w a s c r a c k i n g t h e s t r i n g s o f I t s h e a r t I n f l i g h t ; I t s e y e s s t a r t e d f r o m I t s h e a d l i k e c r y s t a l b u b b l e s . " R u n , r a b b i t , r u n ! " I c r i e d . " R u n , d o g s ! " s h o u t e d t h e b i g I n d i a n w i t h t h e r e d c o r d s o n h i s h a t , h i s l o v e o f a c o n t e s t I n s t a n t l y a r o u s e d . H e t u r n e d t o m e w i t h h i s e y e s b l a z i n g ; " W h a t w i l l y o u b e t , s e n o r l t a ? " ( p . 151) T h e n a r r a t o r ' s d e s p a i r m a k e s f l i g h t t h e o n l y p o s s i b l e c o u r s e o f a c t i o n . U n a b l e t o w a i t f o r t o m o r r o w I n t h e " d e a t h l y a i r , " s h e r e s i s t s t h e i m p o r t u n i n g s t o s t a y : t h e a s s u r a n c e s o f h e r c o l l e a g u e s t h a t U s p e n s k y w i l l b e f e e l i n g b e t t e r a n d t h a t w o r k o n t h e p i c t u r e w i l l r e s u m e ; t h e p r o m i s e o f D o n a J u l i a t h a t w h e n L o l i t a r e t u r n s " t h e r e w i l l b e g r e a t e x c i t e m e n t . " E v e n t h e I n d i a n d r i v e r , w h o I s p e r s u a d e d t h a t a l t h o u g h t h e r e I s n o h o p e t h a t t h i n g s w i l l b e d i f f e r e n t I m m e d i a t e l y , t h e f u t u r e o f f e r s s o m e p r o m i s e . " I f y o u s h o u l d c o m e b a c k I n a b o u t t e n d a y s . . . y o u w o u l d s e e a v e r y d i f f e r e n t p l a c e . I t I s v e r y s a d h e r e n o w . B u t t h e n t h e g r e e n 276 c o r n w i l l b e r e a d y , a n d h a , t h e r e w i l l b e e n o u g h t o e a t a g a i n . " ( p . 1 7 0 ) P o r t e r ' s s t y l e r e a c h e s a h i g h p o i n t I n H a c i e n d a , w r i t i n g s o b e a u t i f u l l y c l e a r a n d c o n t r o l l e d t h a t I t d e f i e s p a r o d y . T h e u s e o f t h e d o u b l e n a r r a t o r i s s t r i k i n g l y e f f e c t i v e : t h e " i " w h o e x p e r i e n c e s t h e h o r r o r i j o f t h e H a c l e n d s * s p e o p l e a n d e v e n t s — t h e c e n t e r o f \ c o n s c i o u s n e s s ; a n d b e y o n d t h a t c e n t e r t h e r e I s a n a l l - j k n o w i n g r e m o t e c o n s c i o u s n e s s t h a t o b s e r v e s w i t h i | I d e t a c h m e n t w h a t h a s b e e n a n d I s t o b e . M e t a p h o r s a n d i s i m i l e s — a s t h e p a r a g r a p h q u o t e d a b o v e i n d i c a t e s — a r e u s e d w i t h m o r e f r e q u e n c y t h a n I n m a n y o f h e r s t o r i e s , I w h e r e i m a g e r y c a r r i e s t h e w h o l e b u r d e n o f r e n d e r i n g t h e c o n c r e t e n e s s o f t h e e x p e r i e n c e . T h e s o u n d i m a g e r y i n H a c l e n d a I s u n u s u a l l y v i v i d , h e l p i n g t o c o n v e y t h e f e e l i n g o f e v e r y a s p e c t o f l i f e . T h e h o r r o r s o f t h e " m a c h i n e w o r l d " — t h e r u m b l e o f b a r r e l s r o l l i n g d o w n w o o d e n t r e s t l e s i n t h e v a t r o o m — I s c o n t r a s t e d w i t h t h e w o r l d o f n a t u r e a n d o f m a n w i t h s t u n n i n g e f f e c t i v e n e s s : F r o m t h e w i n d o w n e x t t o m i n e , t h e t h r e e R u s s i a n v o i c e s m u r m u r e d a l o n g q u i e t l y . P i g s g r u n t e d a n d r o o t e d i n t h e s o f t w a l l o w n e a r t h e w a s h i n g f o u n t a i n , w h e r e t h e w o m e n w e r e s t i l l k n e e l i n g I n t h e d a r k n e s s , t h u m p i n g w e t c l o t h o n t h e s t o n e s , c h a t t e r i n g , l a u g h i n g . A l l t h e w o m e n s e e m e d t o b e l a u g h i n g t h a t n i g h t : l o n g a f t e r m i d n i g h t , t h e h i g h b r i g h t s o u n d s p a r k e l e d a g a i n a n d a g a i n f r o m 277 the long row o f peon q u a rte rs along the c o r r a l. B u r r o s s o b b e d a n d m o u r n e d t o e a c h o t h e r , t h e r e w a s e v e r y w h e r e t h e d r o w s y w a k e f u l n e s s o f c r e a t u r e s , s t a m p i n g h o o f s , b r e a t h i n g a n d s n o r t i n g , ( p . 1 6 2 ) M u c h o f P o r t e r ' s s t y l i s t i c s t r e n g t h d e r i v e s , I t h i n k , f r o m t h e d e l i c a c y o f t o n e c o u p l e d w i t h t h e s t r e n g t h o f h e r w o r d s , p a r t i c u l a r l y v e r b s . T h a t I s a s n o t i c e a b l e I n I I Hacienda as I t was In "Flowering J u d a s," In which Bragglonl "heaves him self Into song" (p. 90) while h is "balloon cheeks grow o ily with the lab o r o f song." (p. 92) And Laura, who "has encased h e r s e lf In a s e t o f p r in c ip le s ," hears numbers tic k In her brain lik e l i t t l e clocks" . . . while "soundless doors clo se o f | themselves around h e r." (pp. 9 2, 1 0 1) I t a l i c s added. ! I n H a c i e n d a , t o o , I s n o t i c e a b l e h e r d i s t i n c t i v e w a y w i t h p u n c t u a t i o n . W i l l i a m L . N a n c e , S . M . h a s c a l l e d a t t e n t i o n t o t h a t I n K a t h e r i n e A n n e P o r t e r a n d T h e A r t ! o f R e j e c t i o n , i n w h i c h h e s p e a k s o f h e r t e n d e n c y t o reduce punctuation "to the lowest p o ssib le minimum" in I £ q I t h e i n t e r e s t s o f s m o o t h n e s s a n d I n t e n s i t y . 7 B y u s i n g i commas In stead o f periods and semicolons and o m ittin g i c o m m a s w h e n e v e r p o s s i b l e , l a n g u a g e a c h i e v e s a f l u i d i t y a n d o f t e n a d r e a m l i k e q u a l i t y t h a t t r a n s c e n d s t h e I p a r t i c u l a r i t i e s of time and p lace , suggesting a u n iv e rs a l i consciousness. 278 Hacienda, the o b itu a ry fo r the Mexican R evolution p resen ts a te r r if y in g v isio n o f l i f e , but the most te r r if y in g was to come some t h i r t y years l a t e r In the l Ship o f P o o ls. t i Few novels by a w rite r o f s t a t u r e have generated | more c r i t i c a l controversy In recen t y ea rs. Few novels i have been so long "in p ro g re ss." I t s u ltim ate o rig in \ \ was her voyage from Mexico to Germany in 1932; more s p e c i f i c a l l y . In an account o f th a t voyage to her frie n d and fellow w r ite r C aroline Gordon.7° She began to work on I t s e rio u s ly as a novel In 19^1 during a s ta y a t Yaddo, and with In te rru p tio n s worked a t ! ' I t o c c a sio n a lly fo r the next twenty y ea rs. Then, In the ! sp rin g of 1 9 6 1, she s a id , she " fin ish e d the whole damn j thing In s ix w eeks."71 (A ctu ally , P o rte r on P o rte r- j composing is o fte n as u n re lia b le as P o rte r on P o r t e r - v i t a l i s t a t i s t i c s J In the P aris Review In terv iew , fo r example, she I n s i s t s a t one p oin t th at "I always w rite a s to ry In one s i t t i n g . "72 y$t s h o rtly b e fo re , she a ls o told Barbara Thompson that she rewrote "Marla Concepcion" ! | f i f t e e n o r s ix te e n times, (p. 17) Glenway Wescott says : th a t a year elapsed before she managed to re so lv e her i , problems with th a t p o rtio n o f "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" i In which Miranda en visions h e a v e n . 73) ■ 279 At whatever pace I t was w ritte n fo r whatever re a so n s, when Ship o f Fools appeared, i t brought In s ta n t ric h e s and fame. Launched by a $59,000 a d v e rtis in g campaign in newspapers, m agaslnes, rad io and t e le v is io n , named a Book-of-the-Month S e le c tio n , i t quickly zoomed to a place on the b e s t - s e l l e r l i s t , where I t remained 7 i l fo r f o r t y - f i v e weeks, and was snapped up by Hollywood. I t was highly p raised In l i t e r a r y Jo u rn a ls , with many c r i t i c s echoing Hark S h o re r's enthusiasm fo r i t as comparable w ith "the g r e a te s t novels o f the p ast hundred y e a r s ."75 E a rly , mild d is s e n t was expressed by G ran v ille Hicks and a few o th e r re v ie w e rs.76 But in O ctober, 1962, when Theodore S o l o ta r o f f 's review appeared In Commentary, the f u l l fury o f c r i t i c s began to descend. He and such subsequent p ro te s to rs as Brom Weber flay ed not only Miss P o r t e r 's work, but the w r ite r h e r s e lf and the academic l i t e r a r y c r i t i c s who had "p erv ersely h u r r a h e d . "77 S o lo ta ro ff held th at the novel was te c h n ic a lly bad, p a r ti c u l a r ly in c h a r a c te r iz a tio n ; and th at I t was m orally 78 bad, p e s s im is tic and m isanthropic. Those who p ra ise d i t were — in Weber's more re c e n t words - - g u ilty o f a " P h i l is t i n e i n s e n s i t i v i t y to the hollowness o f ideas and values a s s e rte d by Miss Porter.One o f the more I n f u r i a t i n g — t o S o l o t a r o f f - - i n d i c a t i o n s o f m o r a l a n d t e c h n i c a l f a i l u r e w a s t h e p o r t r a y a l o f H e r r L o w e n t h a l , t h e s i n g l e J e w a b r o a d t h e V e r a * a n o b n o x i o u s m a n w h o o w e s h i s p r o s p e r i t y t o t h e b u s i n e s s i n r e l i g i o u s o b j e c t s h e h a s s e t u p i n M e x i c o b e c a u s e o f i t s c h e a p r e n t * c h e a p l a b o r , c h e a p m a t e r i a l s , a n d r e a d y m a r k e t : " I n d i a n s n o t g o t e n o u g h t o e a t w i l l b u y a s a i n t s t a t u e . 11® 0 G e r m a n c r i t i c s w e r e e q u a l l y i r a t e w i t h t h e n o v e l , Qi c a l l i n g i t a s t u d y i n a n t i - G e r m a n p r e j u d i c e . A A n d i f t h e n o v e l w e r e t o b e r e a d e x c l u s i v e l y a s a n a t i o n a l i s t i c d i a t r i b e , n o o n e s h o u l d h a v e b e e n m o r e I n c e n s e d t h a n t h e A m e r i c a n s — u n l e s s , p e r h a p s , t h e S w i s s , t h e S p a n i a r d s , t h e C u b a n s , t h e M e x i c a n s , a n d t h e S w e d e s s i n c e a l l o f t h e s h i p ' s p a s s e n g e r s a r e s a v a g e l y d e p i c t e d . M o r e v a l i d c r i t i c i s m i s t h a t w h i c h b e g a n w i t h a n d s t e m m e d f r o m W a y n e B o o t h ' s p r o t e s t a b o u t a l a c k o f " c o h e r e n c e o f a c t i o n " a n d " c e n t e r o f i n t e r e s t " i n t h e w o r k . 0 2 A n I n t e r e s t i n g a n s w e r t o b o t h s c h o o l s h a s b e e n p r o v i d e d b y M . M . L l b e r m a n , w h o c a l l s t h e m I r r e l e v a n t s i n c e S h i p o f F o o l s i n h i s o p i n i o n i s n o t a n o v e l , b u t a p r e s e n t d a y v e r s i o n o f t h e b e a s t e p i c — " a k i n d o f m o d e r n a p o l o g u e , a w o r k o r g a n i s e d a s a f i c t i o n a l e x a m p l e o f t h e t r u t h o f a f o r m u l a b l e s t a t e m e n t o r a s e r i e s o f 281 such s t a t e m e n t s . " ^ As such, he says, The design o f the work is a number o f s t o r i e s , some of g r e a te r magnitude than o th e r s , most o f them touching on the o th e r s , but a l l o f them r e la te d I f only s l i g h t l y , I f only by tone and f e e lin g , to the end th at the reader Is j overcome by the w ork's In s is te n c e , (p. 28) | | | The In s is te n c e Is th a t s e n tim e n ta lity , weakness, c r u e l ty , : j : and i r r e s p o n s i b i l i t y have " flo u rish e d too long In the j name o f lo v e ." (p. 2 8 ) Miss P o r t e r 's opinion Is th at the book owes I ts c h a ra c te r to the "moral a lle g o ry " w ritte n by S eb astian B rant, f i r s t published In L atin In 149^ and l a t e r In German under the t i t l e o f Das N a rre n s c h lff« from which she took the t i t l e of her own book. She says o f a tr a n s la tio n she had found a f t e r leav in g Mexico; , I read I t in Basel In the summer of 1932 when I s t i l l had v iv id ly In mind the ImpresslonB of my ! f i r s t voyage to Europe. When I began thinking about ray novel, I took fo r my own th is simple almost u n iv e rsa l image o f the ship o f th is world on i t s voyage to e t e r n i t y . . . and I t s u i t s my purpose e x a c tly . I am a passenger on th a t s h i p . 84 i There are In d ic a tio n s , e x te r n a l and I n t e r n a l , th at | K atherine Anne P o rte r, having ris e n to l i t e r a r y glo ry In I I ! the sh o rt s to r y , was f i n a l l y determined to w rite the | I "g re a t work" th a t would firm ly e s t a b l i s h her place In l i t e r a t u r e - - a work th a t would permit f u l l e s t expression i | | o f her g i f t f o r re v e a lin g sham and i l l u s i o n . She would t L _ ..... 282 be Dante* guiding her read ers through h e l l in order to re v e a l the p o s s i b i l i t y o f s a lv a tio n — not in the l i f e to come* but s a lv a tio n in the here and now. And the influ en ce o f Dante is g re a t in h er p ro se- epic* moral a lle g o ry . As we, v ic a rio u s voyagers, Journey i l ] onward in space* we a lso descend deeper and deeper in to i the s i n f u l c i r c l e s o f the I n fe rn o . I t is worth remembering* I think* th a t Miss P o rte r s p e c if ic a lly s ta te d th a t she considered the theme o f her book to bet . . . the crim in a l c o llu s io n o f good people — people who are harmless — w ith e v i l . I t happens through in e rtia * lack o f seeing what is going on before th e ir e y e s . 85 ; Her t r i p begins in the "purgatory" o f Veracruz* th a t 1 tumultuous antechamber o f h e l l Dante described* where | dw ell: The fo rlo rn s p i r i t s . . . o f those who spent : L ife w ithout Infamy and w ithout p ra is e . | They are mingled w ith th at c a i t i f f rabblement Of the angels* who re b e lle d not* y et avowed To Sod no lo y alty * on themselves In t e n t . 86 Beyond the antechamber* various sin s are p e rso n ifie d and p a r tic u la r iz e d In Ship o f P o o ls. The lech e ry and c a r n a li ty o f the Second C irc le is revealed in various j inodes in f u l l range* from the whores and pimps o f the 1 | Zarzuela troupe through Jenny and David to the d o cto r and La Condesa. The gluttonB of the Third C irc le are p ictu red a t th e ir gross p le a su re : Herr Rleber* David* t h e H u t t e n s ; t h e m i s e r s a n d s p e n d t h r i f t s o f t h e F o u r t h C i r c l e a r e r e f l e c t e d i n G r a f a n d D e n n y . T h e r e a r e t h e h e r e t i c s , t h e p o l i t i c a l l y c o r r u p t , t h e t h i e v e s , t h e t r e a c h e r o u s . S h e f l a y s m e r c i l e s s l y t h e i n s t i t u t i o n s t h e y h a v e p r o d u c e d a n d w h i c h i n t u r n p r o d u c e t h e m . P o s s e s s e d o f a deeply religious sense, Bhe was appalled by modern r e l i g i o u s I n s t i t u t i o n s — C a t h o l i c , P r o t e s t a n t , a n d J e w i s h a l i k e - - w h i c h s h e f e l t h a d d e s t r o y e d m a n ' s m y s t i c a l n a t u r e , h a r n e s s e d h i m t o m u n d a n e m a c h i n e r y , a n d f o r c e d h i m " t o s e r v e t h e e n d s o f a n o r g a n i z a t i o n w h i c h r u l i n g u n d e r d i v i n e g u i d a n c e , h a s s e r v e d v e r y l i t t l e b e t t e r , a n d i n s o m e r e s p e c t s , w o r s e , t h e n c e r t a i n f r a n k l y „ 87 m a n - m a d e s y s t e m s o f g o v e r n m e n t . ' A n d t h e r e w a s p r a c t i c a l l y n o t h i n g t o b e s a i d f o r p o l i t i c a l i n s t i t u t i o n s A l t h o u g h h e r c h i e f w r a t h i s d i r e c t e d a g a i n s t t h e r i s i n g F a s c i s m i n S p a i n a n d G e r m a n y , s h e r e f u s e d t o c o n f o r m t o a n y p a r t y l i n e , h o l d i n g i t " o u r h i g h e s t m o r a l d u t y t o p r o t e s t a g a i n s t t h e s w i n e r i e s o f g o v e r n m e n t s , a n d t h a t s h o u l d I n c l u d e o u r o w n . " ® ® I t I s i n e m p h a s i z i n g t h i s a s p e c t o f l i f e a b o a r d t h e V e r a t h a t P o r t e r b e c o m e s l e s s l i k e D a n t e a n d m o r e l i k e o n e o f t h e E i g h t e e n t h C e n t u r y s a t i r i s t s s h e h a d a l w a y s / ^ z a d m i r e d - - i n t h i s c a s e J o s e J o a q u i n F e r n a n d e z d e L l z a r d l F o r a b o u t a d e c a d e a f t e r s h e h a d f i r s t c o n c e i v e d o f t h e I d e a o f S h i p o f F o o l s . P o r t e r w a s s t r u g g l i n g t o g e t I n t o p r i n t h e r v e r s i o n o f t h e t r a n s l a t i o n o f e l P e r l q u l l l o S a r n l e n t o ( T h e I t c h i n g P a r r o t ) m a d e b y h e r s e c o n d 8 9 h u s b a n d . T h a t e m o t i o n a l i n v o l v e m e n t I n t h e b o o k w a s I n t e n s i f i e d b y h e r f e e l i n g o f I d e n t i t y w i t h " t h e M e x i c a n T h i n k e r . " B o r n a t t h e p e a k o f t h e A g e o f R e a s o n , I n t h e y e a r t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s d e c l a r e d I t s I n d e p e n d e n c e , " F e r n a n d e z d e L l z a r d l h a d —- a s s h e p o i n t s o u t I n h e r I n t r o d u c t i o n t o t h e b o o k — s p e n t h i s c h i l d h o o d I n a " r e a c t i o n a r y " a n d " t l g h t - m l n d e d a t m o s p h e r e o f g e n t e e l p o v e r t y . " H e , t o o , h a d b e e n a " p r e c o c i o u s , w i l l f u l , a n d s o m e w h a t u n t e a c h a b l e " y o u n g s t e r ( p . x l l l ) a n d h a d g r o w n u p w i t h h e r o w n l o a t h i n g o f h y p o c r i s y a n d c a n t . A t r u e l i b e r a l , h e w a s I n t r o u b l e w i t h a l l f a c t i o n s . H e w a s d e n o u n c e d t o t h e I n q u i s i t i o n a n d e x c o m m u n i c a t e d b y t h e c h u r c h f o r d e f e n d i n g F r e e m a s o n s ; h e w a s j a i l e d f o r c a l l i n g t h e S p a n i s h r u l e r s " c u r s e d m o n s t e r s ” a n d d e s p o t s , ( p . x l x ) B u t w h e n t h e R e p u b l i c a n s t o o k o v e r , h e w a s I n n o l e s s t r o u b l e f o r s c o f f i n g a t t h e g o v e r n m e n t f o r f a l l i n g t o s e n d " s l a v e r y " o f t h e I n d i a n s , w h i c h h e f o u n d t o b e " a s b i t t e r a n d h o p e l e s s u n d e r t h e C r e o l e R e p u b l i c a s I t h a d b e e n u n d e r t h e S p a n i s h V i c e r o y s . " ( p . x x x l l l ) A j o u r n a l i s t a n d p a m p h l e t e e r , h e w a s f o r c e d b y t h e 285 government censor to find a new o u tl e t fo r h is a tta c k s on In d iv id u a l vices and on p o l i t i c a l and s o c ia l o u tra g e s. He thus cre a te d The Itc h in g P a r r o t, an extended picaresque novel th a t uses each episode to p o in t out human f o l l i e s and s o c ia l e v i l s . Thus, the f i r s t ch ap ters i i show how the a c tio n s o f a good, dotin g f a th e r and a f o o lis h , doting mother transform P o ll In to a s p o ile d , s e l f i s h young w retch. S tupid and v icio u s educators make him re b e l a g a in s t ed ucation; th ie v in g , d ir e c tio n le s s I frie n d s turn him In to a w a s tre l. His prison experiences only confirm - - understandably — h is c rim in a l tendencies and provide him w ith new s k i l l s fo r indulging them. His experiences with a s c riv e n e r, a b a rb e r, and a d ru g g ist f u r th e r h is knowledge o f how to cheat and e x p lo it h is : i fellow men. The do cto r he works fo r shows him how to ! | k i l l o f f p a tie n ts ; a s a c r i s t a n , to rob the dead. Ship o f Fools possesses the same ep iso d ic q u a lity of th a t Latin American f i c t i o n a l " f i r s t . " I t p re se n ts scene a f t e r scene o f comic, grotesque v iv id n e ss; I t o ffe rs' i j the same bew ildering a rra y o f c h a ra c te rs re p re s e n tin g ! every f o l l y , every f o i b l e , every v ic e , and — J u s t about I i as r a r e ly — some o rd in a ry and even e x tra o rd in a ry v irtu e s .j i i i With Fernandes de L iz a rd 1 ’a b r i l l i a n c e , she re v e a ls a l l | a sp e cts of the c o n f li c t between the r e a l and the Id e a l, ( 286 b e t w e e n t h e a c t u a l a n d t h e p r o f e s s e d - - I n s o c i a l i n s t i t u t i o n s a s w e l l a s I n I n d i v i d u a l b e l n g B . S h e d i s s e c t s t h e " g o o d " p e o p l e o f t h e w o r l d , p r a t i n g o f h o n e s t y , p i e t y , h a r d w o r k , l o v e , a n d s a c r i f i c e w h i l e t h e y i n d u l g e I n d e c e i t , b l a s p h e m y , l a z i n e s s , g r e e d , h a t r e d , j a n d l u s t . A n d s h e a p p l i e s h e r s c a l p e l w i t h e q u a l s u r e n e s s j | t o p o l i t i c a l a n d r e l i g i o u s I n s t i t u t i o n s — p r o c l a i m i n g b e n e v o l e n c e , b r o t h e r h o o d , a n d g o o d n e s s w h i l e e n c o u r a g i n g h o s t i l i t y , b r u t i s h n e s s , a n d e v i l . U n l i k e F e r n a n d e z d e L l z a r d l , h o w e v e r , P o r t e r g i v e s n o I n d i c a t i o n t h a t t h e r e i s a n y c h a n c e o f t h i n g s w o r k i n g o u t w e l l e v e n f o r a n " i t c h i n g p a r r o t . " T h e h u m a n I | c o n d i t i o n I s t o o a f f l i c t e d f o r t h a t . D e s p i t e t h e a s s e r t i o n o f R o b e r t H e i l m a n t h a t I n t o n e a n d s t y l e t h e K a t h e r i n e A n n e P o r t e r o f S h i p o f F o o l s Is j r e l a t e d t o J a n e A u s t e n , 9 ° t h e n a r r a t i v e c o n t a i n s v e r y ; l i t t l e o f t h e e l e g a n t i r o n y t h a t d i s t i n g u i s h e s P o r t e r * s I s h o r t s t o r i e s . I r o n y h a s g i v e n w a y t o a p o c a l y p t i c s a t i r e . S h e p r o t e s t s m o r a l a n d p o l i t i c a l a n d r e l i g i o u s d e c a y w i t h j t h e f e r v o r o f D . H . L a w r e n c e * A n d , c u r i o u s l y , t h e r e a r e ! I m a n y p a r a l l e l s b e t w e e n S h i p o f F o o l s a n d T h e F l y i n g F i s h * : i i t h e f r a g m e n t a r y w o r k L a w r e n c e w r o t e o n h i s l a s t J o u r n e y f r o m M e x i c o . I n t h a t , L a w r e n c e a l s o u s e s t h e p o r t o f V e r a c r u z t o s y m b o l i z e t h e d e a d a n d d y i n g i n s t i t u t i o n s o f j 287 w estern man, d e sc rib in g I t as: . . . a p oint where the wild prim eval day o f th is c o n tin e n t met the busy w hite man's day, and the two annulled one an o th er. The r e s u l t was a p o rt o f n u l l i t y , n ih ilis m concrete and a c tu a l, c a ll i n g I t s e l f the c i t y o f the True C ro s s .91 He d esc rib es the c i t y as "dish earten ed " and "abandoned." 1 I Even the sun s e t t i n g over the s a l t w ater seems " s in is te r ." ! The w a te r, I t s e l f , in which n a tiv e s were s t i l l baptized ! to C h r i s t ia n it y had become another kind o f baptism al ! font for the s o c i a l i s t s , where "in mockery" they "baptized themselveB Into the mystery o f frustration ! and revenge." (p. 7 9 0) 1 I (Lawrence and P o rte r were not the only tr a v e le r s so overwhelmed by the d e s o la te q u a lity o f the p o rt. Madame / M Calderon de l a Barca had liken ed I t to the ru in s of j Jerusalem , though w ithout i t s s u b lim ity ."92 Oraham j j Greene and Malcolm Lowry were a lso to sense and w rite 3 o f 1 1 as a purga to r y .) In Ship o f F ools. P o rte r sums up I t s p u r g a to r ia l q u a l i t i e s in a s e r ie s o f v ig n e tte s : the beggar, who had e a r ly In l i f e been "so I n t r i c a t e l y maimed and | deformed by a m aster o f the a r t , In p re p a ra tio n fo r h is c a l l i n g , he had l i t t l e resemblance to any human b e in g ."93 | ! While the businessmen In the cafe plan to smash the workers "to a pulp" when they s t a r t to take over the 288 f a c to r ie s (p. 2 0 ), the re v o lu tio n a ry le a d e rs are planning "an Immense, honorable fu n e ra l" fo r the young Indian boy who had been k ille d and disemboweled when th e ir bomb missed I t s mark." (p. l8 ) The passengers aboard the v e sse ls — In both books they are German passenger ships — are mostly the kinds j o f persons Lawrence c a lle d the victim s o f "the l e s s e r j day o f money and mealy-mouthed M a m m o n ."9^ In both, the ! c a s t o f c h a ra c te rs Is m u lti-n a tio n a l. Lawrence populates his f lo a tin g world with E n g lish , Danish, Spanish, German, Cuban, and Mexican " s o u ls ." P o r t e r !s dram atis | | personae a ls o Includes a Swiss and an American; a quarrelsom e Swede s u b s titu te s fo r Lawrence*s two Danes. I The F lying F ish ends a b ru p tly — d e sp ite his promise ! to Mrs. Brew ster th a t the l a s t p a rt would p o rtra y "a ! j re g en era te man" and "a r e a l l i f e in th is Garden of i E d e n . "95 But th is promise was never r e a lis e d ; and I Judging from what the fragment did co n tain In the way of a v isio n o f humanity, I t never could have been re a liz e d , j Not as long as men are men and not the porpoises the hero * glimpsed during the g u lf c ro ssin g , when he escaped the ! I m iserable people o f the " le s s e r day" and Is o la te d h im self j on the bow sprit, watching the c r e a tu re s — "more | b e a u tif u l than flow ers" - - lead the s h ip . He r e a liz e s j 289 t h e n : M e n h a v e n o t g o t I n t h e m t h a t s e c r e t t o b e a l i v e t o g e t h e r a n d m a k e l i k e a s i n g l e l a u g h , y e t e a c h f i s h g o i n g o n h i s o w n g a i t . T h i s i s s h e e r J o y « a n d m e n h a v e l o s t I t , o r n e v e r a c c o m p l i s h e d I t . . . I t w o u l d b e w o n d e r f u l t o k n o w J o y a s t h e s e f i s h k n o w I t . T h e l i f e o f t h e d e e p w a t e r s I s a h e a d o f u s , I t s s h e e r t o g e t h e r n e s s a n d s h e e r J o y . V e h a v e n e v e r g o t t h e r e , ( p . 7 9 5 ) N o r a r e t h e p a s s e n g e r s o f t h e V e r a c a p a b l e o f t o g e t h e r n e s s a n d J o y . T h e i r c o m m o n p r e d i c a m e n t h a s n o t m a d e t h e m f e l l o w s : "O n t h e c o n t r a r y , e a c h c h o s e t o m a i n t a i n h i s p r i d e a n d s e p a r a t e n e s s w i t h i n h i m s e l f . " ^ N o r d o e s t h e s u f f e r i n g t h e y m u s t a l l e n d u r e a s h u m a n b e i n g s i | t r a v e l i n g u n d e r s e n t e n c e o f e a t h u n i t e t h e m . E a c h , I n h i s p r i d e a n d d e s i r e f o r a d v a n t a g e , t u r n s o n t h e o t h e r , b e t r a y i n g t h e m a n d h i m s e l f I n w o r d a n d d e e d . D r . S c h u m a n n , t h e s h i p ' s c o n s c i e n c e a s w e l l a s I t s | p h y s i c i a n , I s t h e o n l y o n e a m o n g t h e m a w a r e o f d e a t h , | s e n s i t i v e t o e v i l — i n h i m s e l f a s I n t h e o t h e r s - - b u t p o w e r l e s s t o d o m o r e t h a n t r e a t I t s c o n s e q u e n c e s . T h e w o r d s h e u s e s a g a i n s t t h e C u b a n s t u d e n t s w h o m o c k t h e ! c o u n t e s s c a n b e a p p l i e d t o a l m o s t e v e r y o n e a b o a r d : . . . t h e y s i n a n d d o n o t e v e n k n o w i t , o r t h e y k n o w I t a n d t h e y g l o r y I n I t . T h e y a r e s h a m e l e s s , c r u e l , a n d p r o u d . . . t h e y s i n | a l l d a y l o n g a g a i n s t a l l t h a t e x i s t s , f r o m t h e h u m a n h e a r t t o t h e H o l y O h o s t , a n d w h e n t h e y a r e t i r e d o f s i n n i n g t h e y l i e d o w n a n d s l e e p l i k e n e w l y w a s h e d l a m b s , ( p . 190) * 290 They commit o v ert sin s o f v io len ce: Mrs. Treadwell smashes Denny's face w ith the h ee l o f h er s l i p p e r , tu rn in g i t In to a p i t te d and swollen mask; Arne Hansen opens the s k u ll o f the p lg - llk e Herr R ieber w ith a b o t t le ; the souls in ste e ra g e b ra in the f a t re v o lu tio n i s t ; o ld e r members o f the Spanish troupe and t h e i r two j monstrous c h ild re n , Ric and Rac, s t e a l , l i e , c h e a t, f o r n ic a te , and provoke o th e rs to e v i l — as Concha t r i e s to persuade the l u s t - s i c k Johann to k i l l h is uncle to I get money fo r her. Far worse than the o v e rt sin s are the c o v e rt — the s in s th a t are committed because they "have no h e a r t s ." P aren ts v ic tim ise th e ir c h ild re n : even a "good” mother i l ik e Frau Baumgartner tau n ts her son, "beginning to enjoy ! h er c r u e lty , the p le a sa n t fe e lin g th a t she could h u rt | h is pride . . , " (p. 43) Lovers v ic tim is e the beloved; ! a t the end o f the voyage the w rangling of David and Jenny 1 ends momentarily with h is f e e lin g "touched and g e n tle " as he sees h er weeping on h is account: "The s ig h t o f her weakness and d e fe a t gave him p leasu re lik e no o t h e r . ” (p. 475) Freytag is d is lo y a l to h is w ife , re lie v e d to ! be tra v e lin g w ithout her and enjoying again the " p riv ile g e " o f being "a member o f the r u lin g race o f the w orld." (pp. 323-24.) Johann comes to the brink o f 291 k i l l i n g h is uncle. No one, not even the p r i e s t s , r e a l l y ca res when the C h rist among them, the wood-carver E tchegaray, Is drowned try in g to save the hideous bulldog o f P ro fesso r Hut ten and h is w ife. Herr L uts, the Swiss | h o te lk e e p e r, says o f the a r t i s t ' s e f f o r t : " I t was a very I i fo o lis h thing fo r him to do . . . I t Is stu p id thoughtless! people lik e th at who make a l l the tro u b le fo r o th e r s ." | (p. 31*0 And the owners of the rescued c r e a tu r e , t o t a l l y unconcerned about the a r t i s t ' s d eath , a c t out a grotesque I love scene in th e i r cabin while the dog sn o res. To them, Etchegaray is simply one o f "those dangerous a g i t a t o r s " i who undoubtedly "expected a rew ard." (p. 3 1 0) P o r t e r 's view of humanity does seem dark* P a r t ly , I th a t Is because h er ap o caly p tic s a t i r e is bent - - l i k e I i | a l l s a t i r e — on doing something more than I t seems to | be doing. She Is making the re ad er aware th a t lik e h e r, he, too, Is a passenger on th a t sh ip . And a p p a llin g though the p o rt o f embarkation was, the f i n a l one w i l l be even worse than Bremerhaven, which Is the synecdoche fo r i Germany and fo r the u ltim a te d ep rav ity o f the western world. Unless the passengers reco gnise the e v i l In I ! them selves, t h e i r soul s ic k n e s s , the "plague ship" on which they are c a rry in g t h e i r cargo o f e v i l and h atred s w ill continue from p o rt to po rt u n t i l I t s In fe c tio n ' 292 p l u n g e s t h e w h o l e w o r l d i n t o c h a o s a n d d a r k n e s s . F a r f r o m i n d i c a t i n g m o r a l a n d p h i l o s o p h i c a l i n s e n s i t i v i t y , t h e b o o k I s a c r y o f d e e p e s t a n g u i s h , a r e l i g i o u s p r e a c h m e n t . A l t h o u g h o n e c a n l a m e n t t h a t S h i p o f F o o l s i s n o t a n o t h e r p o e t i c m y t h , i t s a c h i e v e m e n t a s e p i c s a t i r e m u s t ! b e a c k n o w l e d g e d . I n i t s h e h a s o v e r c o m e t h e c e n t r a l p r o b l e m o f t h a t m o d e b y m i n g l i n g g r o t e s q u e n e s s w i t h | | t r a g e d y a n d c o m e d y i n s u c h a w a y a s t o a c h i e v e t h e i I l l u s i o n o f r e a l i t y a n d t o g i v e l i f e a n d e m o t i o n a l r i c h n e s s t o h e r c h a r a c t e r s . 9 ? T h e " h u m o u r s " t h a t i n h a b i t t h e l i t t l e w o r l d o f t h e V e r a a r e p e o p l e , f o o l s t o b e s u r e , b u t w h o p r o v o k e p i t y a s w e l l a s l a u g h t e r : r e c o g n i s a b l e t y p e s , b u t a l s o s u f f e r i n g i n d i v i d u a l s . I f t h e p a s s e n g e r s a r e s i n n e r s , t h e y h a v e a l s o b e e n s i n n e d j a g a i n s t : D a v i d , a s a c h i l d , b y u n l o v i n g a u n t s ; F r e y t a g , I b y t h e r a c i s t s ; F r a u B a u m g a r t n e r , b y h e r a l c o h o l i c , c h i l d i s h h u s b a n d . A l l o f t h e m h a v e b e e n m a d e t o k n o w ! | e v i l b y o n e s t h e y t r u s t e d a n d l o v e d . I n S h i p o f F o o l s , a s i n h e r o t h e r b o o k s , K a t h e r i n e A n n e P o r t e r i s c o n c e r n e d w i t h t h e m o m e n t i n c h i l d h o o d w h e n t h e w o u n d I s i n f l i c t e d t h a t r e s u l t s i n p e r m a n e n t d i s f i g u r e m e n t . T h e c o r r u p t i o n o f t h e I n n o c e n t i s a t h r e a t t h a t r u n s t h r o u g h a l l h e r w o r k ; a n d h e r p o r t r a i t s 293 o f c h i l d r e n a r e a m o n g h e r f i n e s t a c h i e v e m e n t s : t h e d e f e n s e l e s s i d i o t o f " H e , " S t e p h e n o f " T h e D o w n w a r d P a t h t o W i s d o m , " t h e y o u n g M i r a n d a o f " T h e G r a v e " a n d o t h e r L e a n i n g T o w e r s t o r i e s . R i c a n d R a c , t h e t w i n s j w h o s e n a m e s w e r e d e r i v e d f r o m a p o p u l a r M e x i c a n a n i m a l j c a r t o o n , s e e m t h e e m b o d i m e n t o f e v i l - - c o m m i t t i n g e v e r y ‘ I | c r i m e t h a t c h i l d h o o d w i l l p e r m i t : s t e a l i n g t h e c o u n t e s s ' s | p e a r l s , t h r o w i n g B e b e o v e r b o a r d a n d w a t c h i n g w i t h d e l i g h t a s t h e w o o d - c a r v e r , t h e i r v i c t i m , i s l o w e r e d t o a s e a 96 b u r i a l . T h e y c r e a t e h a v o c w h e r e v e r t h e y a r e . T h e y a p p a l l b u t e v e n t h e y a r e c o m p r e h e n s i b l e , p a r t i c u l a r l y a f t e r t h e s c e n e i n t h e c a b i n o f t h e i r p a r e n t s , w h e n t h e t w o c h i l d r e n a r e p h y s i c a l l y a n d e m o t i o n a l l y t o r t u r e d i i n t o c o n f e s s i n g t h a t t h e y h a v e s t o l e n t h e p e a r l s t h a t ! t h e o l d e r m e m b e r s o f t h e t r o u p e h a d p l a n n e d t o s t e a l t h e m s e l v e s . A f t e r t h e m o s t v i c i o u s a b u s e , t h e e l d e r s i l e a v e t h e c a b i n : W h e n t h e y w e r e g o n e , R i c a n d R a c c r a w l e d i n t o t h e u p p e r b e r t h l o o k i n g f o r s a f e t y ; t h e y l a y t h e r e h a l f n a k e d , e n t a n g l e d l i k e s o m e a f f l i c t e d , m i s b e g o t t e n l i t t l e m o n s t e r i n a c a v e , e x h a u s t e d , i m i n d l e s s , s o o n a s l e e p , ( p . 3 ^ 8 ) i | E v e n m o r e d i s t u r b i n g i s t h e " f a l l 1' s c e n e i n w h i c h l i t t l e H a n s B a u m g a r t n e r i s I n t r o d u c e d b y h i s p a r e n t s t o t h e I ; | k n o w l e d g e t h a t s e x , d e a t h , a n d v i o l e n c e a r e a p a r t o f ' t h e w o r l d - - t h e k n o w l e d g e o f w h a t r e l i g i o n i s t s , 294 Includin g P o r te r , c a l l O rig in a l S in . His f a th e r , a f t e r having made a s p e c ta c le o f h im self a t d in n e r, th re a te n s su ic id e in f r u s t r a t io n and c h ild is h ra g e. A fraid to carry i t o u t, he descends from the deck and b trik e s h is ; w ife, t e r r if y in g the c h ild . Frau Baumgartner, a b ru ise i | forming on her cheekbone, and her husband both try to r soothe the c h i l d . Then, i | Melted w ith te a rs and s u rp ris e d by r i s i n g ; s e n s u a lity , they began to fondle not each o th e r but the c h ild between them; th e ir newly roused passion fo r each o th e r poured back and fo rth over and through him lik e a wave. (p. 438) Hans t r i e s to fre e him self from "the prison o f th e ir I | arms." F in a lly , they " r e c o lle c t" themselves and re le a s e [ him. A fte r they turn out the l i g h t s , he hears them ! un d ress, w hisper, and then th e i r sig h s : i Something h o rrib le was happening there in the d ark , something f r i g h t f u l they were keeping from him — he s tra in e d h is eyes s t a r i n g , but there was only a w ell of pure blackness mingled w ith the sounds o f s tru g g le . I t waB not even sound, but a fe e lin g o f commotion as i f they | might be s tru g g lin g - - and y e t , maybe n o t, fo r ■ h is h e a rt was b ea tin g so hard and so loud ly i t deafened him fo r a while . . . (p. 439) ! Although she d e f tly s t r i p s people of th e ir p retences I and re v e a ls the prevalence of e v i l , K atherine Anne P o rte r l 1 tr e a ts with compassion those who have saved something o f valu e, something o f fe e lin g . I t is not tru e , as has been a s s e r te d , th at a l l o f the c h a ra c te rs are "loathsom e." 295 I t la im possible to read the book c a r e f u lly w ithout having a warm response fo r a good many of the c h a ra c te r s . J e n n y i s o n e , w i t h h e r p i t y a n d h e r c h a r m , h e r l o v e o f l i f e and beauty and her ca p acity fo r happiness. In a passage rem iniscent of Lawrence's d e s c rip tio n o f Gethin L a y ' s r e s p o n s e t o t h e p o r p o i s e s , P o r t e r h a s J e n n y s a y : David, d a r lin g , I remember once I was swimming f a r out in the Bay o f Cropus C h r i s t ! , on a i b e a u tif u l day, and I was coming towards land i ag a in , and a whole school of porpoises came I s t r a i g h t a t me, oh they looked lik e mountains r i s i n g and dipping in the waves, add I thought I might die o f f r i g h t ; but they J u s t divided i around me and went on, sweeping out to the Gulf o f Mexico. And I was suddenly very h*Ppy» and thought, "Oh, th is is the p le a s a n te s t | th ing th a t ever happened to me!" (p. 3 2 0) Mrs. Treadw ell is another c h a ra c te r who evokes sympathy. That "g en tle lady" who betrayed Freytag in h e r b o r e d o m a n d w h o s m a s h e d D e n n y i n a p a s s i o n o f d i s g u s t I l ; and f r u s t r a t i o n is " th a t u n fo rtu n ate g i r l who c o u ld n 't grow up." (p. 397) U nderstandably, she w o u ld n 't, fo r time was "a l i a r and a c h e a t, but i t could not touch anything th at lay on the o th e r sid e o f her f i r s t love which had cut her l i f e in two." (p. 207) She could not bear to t e l l her p a re n ts , who s t i l l " s le p t seren ely " in i her fle s h and who had made her b eliev e th at the whole i world was the "so ftn e ss and warmth and sa fe ty " with which I they had surrounded h e r, th a t she had f a lle n in love with j 296 the wrong man. Was I r e a l ly ever married to a man so je a lo u s he beat me u n t i l I bled a t the nose? I d o n 't b eliev e i t . I never knew a man l i k e th at — he i s n ' t born y e t. I t ' s something I read about In a newspaper . . . but I s t i l l bleed a t the nose i f I am frig h te n e d enough a t anything, (p. 2 0 6) Frey tag, for a l l h is s e l f p i t y , is deeply moving as he speaks o f his w ife to Jenny, as they dance: I wish I could J u s t take h e r , w ithout her mother, who never l e t s us fo rg e t fo r a minute th a t she has l o s t n ea rly a l l her frie n d s on our account, and find a country - - there must be one somewhere 1 — to liv e lik e human beings - - lik e o th e r people, and never hear the words Jew o r O entlle again, (p. 297) Most o f a l l , there is La Condesa and Dr. Schumann, i those s ta r - c r o s s e d lo v e rs . Dr. Schumann s t i r s not only | our p i t y , but our adm iration. D espite h is f a l l i n g s — h is love causes him to b etray h is c a ll i n g by a d m in lste r- J lng n a rc o tic s to the countess and in su rin g a co n tin u in g I ! supply — he s i n s , unlik e the o th e r s , out o f love. His i | h e a rt c o n d itio n is not merely a p riv a te ph ysical ailm ent i I t i s , P o rte r su g g e sts, the h e a rt sick n ess o f the sane and decent men looking upon the so rd id sp e c ta c le o f western l i f e . The se x -rid d e n , drug-add icted countess a ls o triumphs over the sordid mess o f l i f e . Loving Dr. Schumann, she re fu ses to accept h is o f f e r to abandon h is family and goes s o l i t a r y in to e x ile on the " isla n d o f 297 d e a th ." Her comment e a r l i e r in the book illu m in a te s the tragedy o f th e ir li v e s : "I know nothing about a co n scien ce," said La Condesa. I have Instead Ju s t the f a i n t e s t sense o f honor which does alm ost as w ell . . . i n te r m itte n tly ! " (pp. 1 9 1- 9 2 ) j The world o f Ship o f Fools is a bleak one. In ! Mexico, P o rte r had looked in to the abyss and gained f u l l knowledge o f the n atu re o f e v i l , " i t s power and i t s ! b e s t i a l i m b e c i l i t y . "99 There, however, she had come to | terms with death and had the s tre n g th to r e s i s t a re tu rn to nothingness — as Hart Crane, fo r example, had n o t. The way out of chaos e x is te d — through a r t and r e lig io n . In an essay w ritte n during World War I I appealing to w rite rs to accept the r e s p o n s ib ility fo r "helping to make th is a place where man can liv e as man and not as v ic tim , pawn, a lower o rd er o f animal driven out to die beside the road or survive in s t e a l t h and cunning," she s a id : ! i I agree with Mr. E. M. F o rs te r th at there are only two p o s s i b i l i t i e s fo r any r e a l o rd e r: in a r t and in r e lig io n . A ll p o l i t i c a l h is to ry is a v ile mess, varying only in degrees o f v ile n e ss from one epoch to an o th er, and only the work o f s a in ts and a r t i s t s gives us any reason to 1 b elelv e th at the human race is worth belonging t o . 100 I I Her p o p u la rity with the ap o c aly p tic gen eratio n today suggests th at they understand her message and wish to share th a t psychic voyage to a human s e l f 299 NOTES CHAPTER IV 1. During a drunken sp re e , Crane threatened Miss P o r te r , In whose house he had been s ta y in g In Mexico C ity , th a t he was going to k i l l him self by leap in g o f f the ro o f, she persuaded him not to make him self absurd. The ro o f was only one sto ry high. Not too drunk to a p p re c ia te h is p o s itio n , Crane laughed and descended. John U n terck er, Voyager (New York: P a rra r, S traus and Clroux, 19o9 )» p7 ^>59. 2. Solomon Grunberg, quoted Voyager, p. 768. 3. Her sh arp e st c r it i c i s m o f Lawrence came la t e - - i 960 - - In an essay c a lle d "A Wreath fo r the Gamekeeper." In th a t she takes Issue w ith such "hard-headed, experienced l i t e r a r y men" as Edmund W ilson, Harvey B r e l t , Jacques Barzun, and A rchibald MacLelsh fo r " f a l l i n g In lik e th is w ith th is fra d u le n t crusade of r a is in g an old tir e d Cause out o f I t s tomb." She added: "For th is Is no longer j u s t a book, and I t never was a work o f lite r a tu r e .w o r th a l l th is a t t e n t i o n . I t Is no longer a Cause, I f I t ever was, but a p u b lic ity device and a well-worn one by now, c a lc u la te d to rouse a sa la c io u s Itch o f c u r io s i t y In the p ro sp ec tiv e custom er." K atherine Anne P o rte r. The C o lle cted Essays and O ccasional W ritings of TCaTherlne Anna JPorcer [Bos to n : Seymour Lawrence, t ncorpora te d , 1 9 6 9)» p . 17. 4. " P o r t r a it : Old S outh," C ollected E ssays, p. 164. 5 . "On a C ritic is m o f Thomas Hardy," C ollected E ssa y s. p. 7# In th a t essay , Miss P o rte r deplores the way in which organized r e lig io n has m isd irected men, harn essin g h is mysticism rudely "to machinery o f the most mundane s o r t . " Moreover, she p o in ts o u t, organized re lig io n has J u s t i f i e d "the most c y n ic a l expedients o f w orldly government by a high m o rality " and committed "the most savage crimes agalns human l i f e fo r the love o f God." (p. 8 ) 6 . " P o r t r a it : Old S outh," C ollected E ssays, p . 159* 300 7. H 0n a c r i t i c i s m of Thomas H ardy,” C o llected E ssays, p. 9. 8 . P o r t e r 's b i r t h date is now s e t a t 1 8 9 0. U n til re c e n tly , b io g ra p h ic a l sketches — presumably prepared with her a s s is ta n c e — give i t as 189^: two years a f t e r h er m other's death. See George Hendrick, K atherine Anne P o rte r (New York: Twayne P u b lis h e rs , I n c . ) , 19&5)# P* IP* P o r t e r 's u n r e l i a b i l i t y shows up c l e a r l y in the interview with Barbara Thompson th at appeared in the W inter- Sprlng issu e o f the P a ris Review. In t h a t , fo r example, she says th a t she l e f t home a second time a t the age o f 21, In 191^. According to t h a t , her b i r t h d ate would have been 1893* Yet a sh o rt time l a t e r , she says th a t h e r - f i r s t sto ry appeared when she was t h i r t y - t h r e e , In 1923 — s h i f t i n g the date back to 1 8 9 0. Interview re p rin te d in K atherine Anne P o r te r , A C r i t i c a l Symposium, ed. b y Lodwick H artley and George Core (Athens, Georgia: U n iv ersity of Georgia P re s s , 1969)# PP* 8-9# 17. 9. "Why I W rite about Mexico," C ollected E ssay s, p. 355* 1 0 . At an o th er point in the essay , she does say th a t: "th ere is a t the h e a rt o f the universe a rid d le th at no man can so lv e , and in the end God may be the answ er." (p. 8 ) 1 1 . "R eflectio n s on W illa C ath er," C o llected E s s a y s . p . 31 * 1 2 . Although Miss P o rte r w rite s ex ten siv ely about many asp ects o f h er l i f e , she has been vague and s e c re tiv e about o th ers - - including her f i r s t huBband from whom she was divorced three years a f t e r t h e i r m arriage. 1 3 . "Old M o rta lity ," The C ollected S to rie s of Katherine Anne P o rte r (New York: Harcourt# Brace & w orld, I n c . , 1985), p. 2 2 0. 301 1**. "Why I W rite About Mexico," L e tte r to the e d i t o r o f The Century in 1923, was f i r s t re p rin te d in The Days Before (fcrew York: H arcourt, Brace and Company, 1952), p. 2^ 0 . 15. Hendrick, op. c l t . 22. 16 . Some of the d e t a i l s o f her l i f e a f t e r the divorce are v a rio u sly given. In the "C ontributors and C ontribu tio n s" column o f A sia fo r August 1920, whe was id e n tif ie d as "a young American w r ite r who has been on the s t a f f of the D allas News and the Rocky Moun ta in News o f Denver. She has w ritte n many b a l l e t pantomimes and c h i l d r e n 's s t o r i e s and has c o r r e s ponded fo r Texas newspapers from the Mexican b o rd e r." The c o n trib u tio n to As la was e n t i t l e d "The Adventures o f Hzah H adji: A Tale of a Turkish Coffee House." Lodwlck H artley and George Core (e d s.) K atherine Anne P o rte r: A C r i t i c a l Symposium (Athens, Georgia: U n iv e rsity o f Georgia P re s s , 1969)* P* x l . The ex o tic natu re o f her f i r s t book, My Chinese M arriage. is noted by Edward Schwartz, to whom she said th a t the book was "a mere s e t t i n g down o f someone e l s e 's s to ry , nothing o f my own." K atherine Anne P o rte r: A C r i t i c a l B ib lio g rap h y ." With an In tro d u c tio n by Robert Penn Warren. B u lle tin of the New York P ublic L ibrary (LVII (1953), See p. '9." 17. C o llected S t o r i e s , p. 6 5 . 1 8 . In terview in Pa r i s Review, quoted Hendrick, p. 18. 19. M a n y M e x l c o B * p. 2 7 6 . 20. Betram D. Wolfe, Diego R ivera (New York: A lfred A. Knopf, 1939)# pp. 157-50. 21. The i l l - f a t e d poet a rriv e d l a t e s t o f the group in 1939 on a Guggenheim Foundation sc h o la rsh ip th a t he hoped would enable him to w rite a g re a t play — " ra th e r E liz a b e th a n , but a c ta b le " — on the Conquest o f Mexico. (L e tte r to Selden Rodman, quoted Voyager. p. 6 6 6 .) Mexico gave him much — "flo w ers, 2 s e rv a n ts , n ig h tin g a le s , moonlight" — he to ld f r ie n d s . I t Introduced him to a c i r c l e o f ta le n te d and g e n e ra lly sym pathetic p eop le, who r a l l i e d to him: K atherine P o r te r , Lesley Byrd Simpson, William S p ra tlln g , S lq u le ro s , and Malcolm Cowley's f i r s t w ife , who was 302 In the process o f g e ttin g a d ivorce. Gut he did not fin d there the words fo r the drama o r a way to break with h is alcoholism and torm ent. He a ffro n te d and even a ss a u lte d h is f r ie n d s , slashed the p o r t r a i t S lqu leros had p ain ted o f him, alarmed h is sponsors by m u ltip le episodes ending In a r r e s t s . On h is way back to the U.S. on A p ril 27# he q u arreled with Peggy Cowley - - the f i r s t woman with whom he had ev er been able to achieve a normal sexual r e l a t i o n s h ip , and 275 miles north o f Havana leaped overboard to h is death. Voyager. p. 758. 22. "St. Augustine and the B u l lf ig h t ," C ollected E ssays. P. 95. 23. E x ce llen t background m a te ria l e bout th is period Is provided by Selden Rodman, Mexican Jo u rn a l (Carbondale: Southern I l l i n o i s U n iv e rsity P re s s , 1964). 24. The Days B efo re. p. V. 25. "Why I W rite About Mexico," C ollected Essays, p. 356. 26. (Los Angeles: Young & M c C a lllste r, I n c . , 1922). In th a t book, Miss P o rte r — who fre q u e n tly c r i t i c i z e s the old order — s t r e s s e s the value o f the s ta b le s o c ie ty experienced by the Mexican peons who "love t h e i r p ast w ith th at u n c r i t i c a l , unquestioning devotion which Is beyond lo g ic and above reason. Order and p re c isio n they know by h e a rt. I n s t i n c tiv e obedience to the changeless laws o f n a tu re , s t r a i g h t f i d e l i t y to t h e i r Inner sense mark a l l they do." (p. 3 9) 27. C onsiderable emphasis is put or th is p o in t by Harry John Mooney, J r . , The Fj-Ctj-Qp C ritic is m o f K atherine Anne P o rte r { P ittsb u rg h ; U n i v e r s i t y o f P itts b u rg h P re s s , l9&2j He con siders "The Wooden Umbrella the lo n g est and "mo*t tren c h an tly thought out and s ta te d " one In the c o l l e c t i o n . "D eftly and s u re ly , Miss P o rte r s t r i p s away la y e r a f t e r la y e r Af the famous S te in legend and re v e a ls the void a t I ts c e n te r. With some b io g ra p h ic a l ann o tatio n and c a re fu l arrangement o f I t s m a te r ia l, w ith I t s p re se n ta tio n o f a view o f G ertrude S te in In c o n c re te , f a c tu a l term s, The Wooden Umbrella s a t i r i z e s b e a u tif u lly the kind of w r ite r who operates in a 303 moral vacuum, d ea lin g s o le ly with words and te c h n ic a l In n o v atio n s, and com pletely devoid o f fe e lin g f o r , and co n tact w ith , the l i v i n g ." (p. 1 1) 28. Enrique Andereon Imbert and Eugenio F l o r l t , L i t e r a tu re Hlspanamerlcana. (New York: Hold, R inehart and wins t o n , i n c . , 19bo) , pp. 193-95* See a lso K atherine Anne P o r te r , "Notes on the L ife and Death of a Hero," C o llected E ssays, pp. 357-84. 29* In the p re face to The I tc h in g P a r r o t, El P e rlQ u lllo S arn len to by Jose Joaquin Fernandas ae L iz a rd l (uaiMfen C ity , New York: Doran and Company, I n c ., 1942), P o rte r does not id e n tif y P re s s ly as her husband. At the time o f i t s p u b lic a tio n , she was divorced from him. The divorce was a d is illu s io n in g and traum atic ex p e rien ce, a p p a ren tly ; t h e i r l i f e In Mexico had been happy, according to a l l acco unts, Including Hert Crane*s. He had liv e d with them for a tim e. I t was to P re ssly th a t P o rte r wrote the poem, "A fter a Long Journey ," when they l e f t Mexico fo r B e rlin . 30. "Miss P o rte r Adds A Comment," C o llected E ssays, p. 386. 31. C o llected E ssay s, p. 417. 32. "Three Statem ents About W ritin g ," C ollected E ssays, p. 452. P o rte r says s p e c if ic a l ly : "I an always thrown o f f by arm-waving and Bhoutlng, I am never convinced by b re a s t-b e a tin g o r huge shapeless statem ents o f g en e ralized emotion. In p a r t i c u l a r , I think the influ en ce o f Whitman on c e r t a i n American w rite rs has been d is a s tr o u s , f o r he encourages them In the vices o f s e l f love (o fte n disguised as love o f humanity, or the working c l a s s e s , o r Cod), the assumption o f p ro p h etic powers, o r romantic s u p e r io r ity to the lim ita tio n s o f c ra fts m a n s h ip .In fla te d fe e lin g and slo v en ly e x p re ssio n , (p. 452) 33. C o llected S t o r ie s , p. v. 3 4 . C o llected E ssays, p. 486. (The poem is dated 1924.) 35. C o llected S t o r ie s , p. 6 . 304 3 6 . C o llected E ssa y s. pp. 426-30. ("The Charmed L ife" Is dated I 942 — more than twenty years l a t e r than the f i c t i o n a l account. 37. C o llected S t o r i e s , p. 7. 3 8 . K atherine Anne P o rte r. A C r i t i c a l Symposium, p. 104. 39* Jolande J a c o b i, The Psychology o f C. G. Jung (New Haven: Yale U n iv ersity P re s s , 1^6 2 ), p. 87. 40. Myths. Dreams and M ysteries ( tr a n s . by P h ilip M airet) (New York: Harper S c B ro th e rs, i 9 6 0) , p. 23) 41. C o llected S to rie s^ p. 6 6 . 42. One o f the s t o r i e s o f Leopoldo Lugones o f A rgentina (died 1 9 3 8) is o f p a r t i c u l a r i n t e r e s t in th is reg ard , "Viola A c h e ro n tia ." In th at sym bolically e n t i t l e d s to r y , a mad gardener s e ts about c r e a tin g a f l o r a la m uerte. B elievin g th at p la n ts have nervous systerns, th a t t h e i r forms and functions can be influenced by the power o f su g g estio n , his am bition is to transform the shy est and sw eetest o f flowers in to a b lack , d ea th -d e a lin g d e stro y e r. To do th a t he S ubjects the v io le ts in h is "lab o rato ry " to p h y s ic a l and chemical in flu en ces to a l t e r th e ir c o lo r - - using Jasm ine, bellad o n n a, and o th e r fu n e ra l p la n ts . He feeds the v io le ts m ixtures o f poisonous and n a rc o tic p la n ts : arum l i l i e s , o r c h i d s . He shows them scenes o f t e r r i b l e c r u e l ty to stim u la te t h e i r " i d s ." As the s to ry reaches i t s co n clu sio n , the n a r r a to r is suddenly stru c k by a h o rrif y in g n o tio n . He remembers h earin g legends th a t convey the b e l i e f th a t when th e n n d ra g o ra Is watered w ith the blood o f a c h ild , i t weeps. The h o rrif y in g conclusion is sim ply: "And he r e a liz e s . . . " L ite r a tu r e Hlspanoamerlcana. pp. 469-472. 43. In th is s to ry , the c h ild solves his problems o f id e n t i ty and escape from h is q u a r re lin g , h a te f u l r e l a t i v e s by composing a lita n y o f "I hate . . . " The s to ry is a w onderfully s e n s i ti v e p o rtra y a l o f the " o r ig in a l c r i s i s " « a concept to which Gene has re p eated ly r e fe rr e d — in which the "melodious c h ild " l s k l l l e d by a "v e rtig in o u s word." See R. D. Laing and D. G. Cooper, Reason & V iolence: A Decade 305 of S a r t r e *b P h ilo sophy. (New York: Random House* ^vintage Books E d itio n , 1971), p. 70. 44. See "Where P re sid e n ts Have No F rie n d s ," which was w ritte n in 1922 and d escrib es P o rter* s e a r l i e r a t t i tu d e s about the re v o lu tio n . C o llected E ssays. p. 415. 45. Ray B. West, J r . , "K atherine Anne P o rte r and H is to ric Memory," Hopkins Review. 6 (F a ll 1952), p. 19- 46. Whit B u rn e tt, ed. This Is M y Best (New York: 1942), PP. 539-40. 47. "Why I W rite About Mexico*" w ritte n In 1923* C ollected Essays* p. 355- 48. "Where P re sid e n ts Have No F rie n d s," C ollected Essays* p. 407. 49. Many Mexlcos. p. 274. 50. The Conrad books s i g n i f i c a n t l y Influenced th is Idea, I b e lie v e . 51. Mooney f u r th e r adds th a t: " i f Laura Is f i n a l l y forced to brand h e r s e l f a t r a i t o r , I t Is not through a s e r ie s o f ste p s o r events which she can comprehend but only because o f the b lin d upheaval o f the s o c ia l o rd er In which she Is In e x tric a b ly Involved; and, J u s t as Laura fin d s h e r s e lf so a b ru p tly In the wrong, so do re v o lu tio n s ." (p. 48) 52. C o llected S t o r i e s , p. 9 7. 53. Among h ts more im portant c r i t i c i s m s , In a d d itio n to "Katherine Anne P o rte r: Symbol and Theme in *Flowering J u d a s ,' Accent* 7 S p rin g , 1947; The Short S to ry In America (Chicago: ROgnery, 1952), pp7 72-^0; ’' K a t h e r i n e A n n e P o r t e r , " M i n n e a p o l i s : U n i v e r s i t y o f Minnesota Pamphlets on American . r i t e r s , No. 28, 1963. 54* Recent Southern F ic tio n : A Panel D iscussion (Macon. Georgia, I9 6 0 ), p. 127 ----------------------------------- 55- "Laura and the U nlit Lamp," S tu dies In Short F ic tio n (Vol 1 ), 1963, PP- 61-63. I 306 5 6 . L e tte r to Porter*b nephew Paul from Rome, March 23$ 1 9 6 3. C o lle cted E ssay s, p. 115. 57. See James Ruoff and Del Smith, "Katherine Anne P o rte r on Ship of F o o ls," C ollege E n g lish , XXIV (February 19^3)* p. ^9V. 5 8. The Plumed S e rp e n t, p. 230. 59* In the "Foreword" to C ollected S to rie s P o rte r begs o f readers the "g en tle fa v o r '1 o f not c a l l i n g her s h o rt novels " n o v e le tte s" o r — "even worse n o v e lla s. The f i r s t Is a " t r i v i a l dime-novel s o r t o f th in g ," she a s s e r t s ; the l a t e r is a "sla c k , b o n e le ss, a ffe c te d v:ord that we do not need to d esc rib e a n y th in g ." (p. v i.) 6 0 . Foreword to Flowrlng Judas and Other S t o r i e s , (New York: H arcou rt, Jferace & Company, 1930), n. pag. 61. The F ic tio n and C ritic is m of K atherine Anne P o r te r , p7“35:------------------------------------------------------------------------------ : 6 2 . K atherine Anne P o r te r (Twayne*s United S ta te s Authors Ser 1 es , New York, 19t>3) P* 43. 6 3 . Cuoted, Edvjard Schwartz, "K atherine Anne P o rte r: A C r i t i c a l B ib lio g rap h y ," p. 241. 64. The F ic tio n and C ritic is m o f K atherine Anne P o r te r , ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 5 . C o lle c te d S t o r i e s , p. 1 7 0, 6 6 . According to E ise n ste ln * s bio g rap h er, Marie Seton, the Saldwar fam ily agreed to turn the hacienda In to an a g r i c u l t u r a l co o p e ra tiv e ; fo r th at reason i t has been allowed to remain in t h e i r hands. S ergei M. E ls e n s te ln (London* 1952), pp. 195-96. As P o rter* s s to r y in d ic a te s , nothing o f th e s o r t was done. 6 7 . Quoted, Seton, pp. 515-16. j 6 8 . C o llected S t o r i e s , p. 137. j 6 9 . (Chapel H i l l : The U n iv e rsity o f North C arolina P re s s , 1 9 6 3)# P* 214. 307 70. Glenway W escott, "K atherine Anne P o rte r P e rso n a lly ," Katherine Anne P orter* A C r i t i c a l Symprt«ininf p. 4 4 . 71. Newsweek. Ju ly 3 1, 1 9 6 1, p. 7 2 . 72. "An In te rv ie w ," re p rin te d K atherine Anne P o r te r . A C r i t i c a l Symposium, p. 2 0 . 73* "Katherine Anne P o rte r P e rs o n a lly ," p. 3 5 , 74. The film , o f course, stim u lated the s a le s of the paperback e d itio n , which became one of the b e s t s e l l e r s o f the decade. For a more d e ta ile d account o f i t s c r i t i c a l re c e p tio n , see Edward G, Schw artz, "K atherine Anne P o rte r, A C r i t i c a l B ib lio g ra p h y ." 75. "We're A ll on the Passenger L i s t , " New York Times Book Rev lev;, A p ril 1, 1962, p. 1. 76 "Voyage of L if e ," Saturday Review, (March 3 1, 1 9 6 2), pp. 15- 1 6. Hicks says th at w hile the book was c e r t a i n ly ' not a disappointm ent, n elth erc o u ld I t be considered the " f u lf illm e n t o f a g re a t hope." He was troubled th a t: "There Is In I t , so f a r as I can s e e , no sense of human p o s s i b i l i t y . " 77. In an a r t i c l e review p ra is in g S o lo ta ro ff fo r h is a tt a c k , which was re p rin te d In The Red Hot Vacuum and Other P ieces of the S l x t l e i t TJeber said "I had shared tils acute disappointm ent th at 'about 80 per cent o f the review ers and presumably the hundreds of thousands readers whose c u rre n ts of ta s te the review ers both d ire c t and mirror* had misread the novel so com pletly, and what I t s moral, I n t e l l e c t u a l , and e s t h e t i c f a il u r e s were p e rv e rse ly hurrahed as a g re a t triumph fo r the w rite r and her s o c ie ty ." S aturday Review (January 1 6, 1971), p. 31. 7 8 - a t t r k m . 9nd the C r i t i c s , " Commentarv (Ootober, 79. Brom Weber, op c l t . 30. Ship o f F o o ls, p. 101. 8l . A number o f re p re s e n ta tiv e ones c i t e d by Hendrick 308 in d icated th at the review ers were as much d istu rb e d by Miss P o r t e r 's comments to a S a turday Review w r ite r as by anything in the book fts e T f. fn th at Interview , she said that she considered Germany and the Germans " ju s t as dangerous as they were, and the moment they get back th e ir power they are going to do I t again. This complacency about Germany Is simply h o rrify in g . . . The Germans have taken the Jews as a s p e c ia l kind o f symbol, but they are a g a in s t anybody and everybody, andthey havenf t changed a b i t . " Quoted, Hendrick, pp. 123-34. 82. "Yes, But Are They R eally Novels," Yale Review 5 1 , 4 (Summer, 1 9 6 2) p. 633. 8 3 . K atherine Anne P o rte r 1? Fi c t ion (D e tro it: Wayne S ta te U n iv ersity P re s s , 1 9 ' / l ) , p p 19020. 84. Ship of P o o ls > p re fa c e , n. pag. Lodwlck H artley says t h a c B ra n t1s Image Is not what Miss P o rte r assumed I t to be "since i t Involved not one sh ip o f fools but se v e ra l and since these ships s e t out not fo r e t e r n it y but fo r the n ativ e country o f the passen g e rs , The Land of Fools. Miss P o rte rs d e s c rip tio n could a p tly apply to q u ite a numerous progeny of l i t e r a r y works old and new, an example of which might be S utton Vane's highly su c c e ssfu l Outward Bound o f 1923; b u t, c e r t a i n l y , I t s u i t s n e ith e r B ra n t's work nor her own." "Dark Voyagers," p. 215. 85. Rochelle G lrson. "The A uthor." Saturday Review. (March 31* 1962), p. 15. 8 6 . Lawrence Blnyon t r a r e la t io n . 87- O u tline o f Mexican Popular A rts and C ra f ts , p. 3 8 . S e e a l s o , " N o t e s o n a C r i t i c i s m o f T h o m a s H a r d y , The Days B efore, p. 155 8 8 . "A L e tte r to the E d ito r o f the Yale Review ( 1 9 6 1), C o llected Essays, p. 225. 8 9 . In tro d u c tio n , p ie Itc h in g P arro t (El F e rlq u lllo S a rn le n to )j (Garden ftlty , New York: Doubleday,Doran and Company, 1 9 4 2 .), p. x l l l . In the acknowledgements she gives c r e d i t fo r "the f i r s t f u l l tra n s la tio n from the Spanish" by Eugene P re s s ly , whom she does j not Id e n tify as her husband. She says of him simply 1 309 th a t he had "liv ed a number o f years In Mexico and had made a study o f the Mexican popular language and slan g in which th is novel was p a r tly w r itte n , and on which i t s f i r s t appeal to the Mexican public was based. I e d ite d and rev ised I t a t g re a t le n g th ." (p. v ll) 90. "Ship o f F o o ls!Notes on S t y l e , 1 ' K atherine Anne P o rte r, A C r i t i c a l Symposium, p p r 2 0 4 a n d 2 0 9 7 91- Phoenix* The Posthumous Papers of D. H* Lawrence, ed. Edward McDonald ^New York: The Viking P ress, 1 9 3 6 ), p . 7 9 0 . 9 2 . L ife In M-xleo Thirl ng a R.ulrianon nf Tun Year. In That Country (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, I n c . , 19^6), p. 2 7 . 93- Ship of F ools, p . 17 * 9^. The F ly in g F is h , Phoeni x . p. 790. 95- " In tro d u c tio n " , Phoenix, p. x x v tl. 9 6 . Ship of F ools, p. 23. 97. Leonard Felnberg, In tro d u c tio n to S a tir e (Ames, Iowa, The Iowa S ta te U n iv ersity P re s s , 19&7). In that Felnberg says th a t: "Although s a t i r i s t s often use n a r ra tiv e as the basic d ev ice, s a t i r e does not u su a lly provide suspenseful re ad in g , nor Is the read er lik e ly to id e n tify him self with the c h a ra c te rs stro n g ly enough to be genuinely concerned over what happens to them. (p. 8 5 ) Y et, o f co u rse, the w rlte r* s f i r s t problem Is to hold the r e a d e r's i n t e r e s t , ! 9 8 . Lodwlck H artley c a l l s the c h ild re n "d ev il-p o ssessed ."j "Dark Voyagers," p. 223. O ther c r i t i c s , p a rtic u la rly ; Liberman, co n sid er them more kindly - - not as demons, but "merely In fa n ts" who deserve our sympathy since they are the victim s of an ad u lt world th a t Is " v illa in o u s , monstrous, and c r u e l ." K atherine Ann P o r t e r 's F ic tio n , p. 18. 99- "Jacqueline Kennedy," C o llected E ssa y s, p. 3^9- 100. "Transplanted W rite rs ," C o llected E ssays, p. ^59- CHAPTER V GRA H AM GREENE'S FUGITIVE SAINT 310 311 In the w in ter o f 1937-38, a 33-year-o ld E nglish newspaperman and w rite r o f suspense s t o r i e s was com missioned by h is p u b lish e r to g ath er m a te ria l in Mexico fo r a book on the r e lig io u s and p o l i t i c a l s i t u a t i o n in th at coun try. The t r i p proved a Journey to g re a tn e s s, i | fo r The Power and the Glory, which re s u lte d from what I i turned out to be a v ia c r u d e . e sta b lis h e d Graham Greene ! i among contemporary a r t i s t s o f the f i r s t ran k .^ Mexlco was both a goal and a refuge fo r Greene the J o u r n a lis t: he had been assigned to re p o rt on the s it u a tio n there since England was on the point o f breaking o f f diplom atic r e la tio n s with Mexico, and the C atholic Church had been c a llin g fo r world condemnation o f the p erse cu tio n o f clerg y and l a i t y th ere ; not In c o n se q u e n tia lly , he was eager to leave England since | h is c a re e r — h is personal freedom - - had been i Jeopardized by a law su it i n i t i a t e d by S h irle y Temple 2 and her s tu d io . i Beyond those re aso n s, however, i t was a n a tu ra l d e s tin a tio n . In a sen se, a l l o f the experiences and the 1 accomplishments o f the years preceding were involved In | I what was e s s e n t i a l l y a psychic quest fo r death and duality* i I Since Mexico rep resen ted the medieval cosmos o f heaven, | h e l l , and p urgatory, where good and e v i l were engaged In 312 open c o n f l i c t . I t was another o f the death-scapes th a t had to be mapped In o rd er to find the door o f p a rad ise; the underworld through which the "hollow man" had to make h is way to sa lv a tio n and wholeness. Following the | example o f Conrad and o th e r ex p lo rers o f the "darkness i Greene had e a r l i e r gone to A frica hoping to find the r a c i a l childhood th at held "understanding of the darkness o f man1* h e a rt, o f su rety In d e a th ."3 In h is account o f that Journey, he explained h is need to find o th e r than r a tio n a l and l i b e r a l answers to the breakdown o f the s o c ia l order o f the western world and fo r con vertin g tragedy in to divine comedy. Those answers, ! [ he b e lie v e d , had to sought among people liv in g a t "a i le v e l below the c e re b ra l" : I t is n o t, o f course, th at one wishes to sta y a t th at l e v e l , but when one sees to what p e r i l o f e x tin c tio n c e n tu rie s o f c e re b ra tio n have brought us, one sometimes has a c u r io s ity to discover I f one can from what we have come, to r e c a l l a t which p o in t we went as t r a y . 4 i I A fric a had Immediately provided the man - - although not the a r t i s t — w ith some clues to the fork In the road. Mexico c a rrie d back both the man and the a r t i s t . P sy chologically and s p i r i t u a l l y — I f not geo g rap h ically I - - Mexico was a ls o the " fa m ilia r country" o f Greenefs childhood In which heaven and h e l l , love and h a te , good 313 and e v i l were not merely a b s tra c tio n s glancing over the su rface o f consciousness on Sunday mornings, but the " a c t u a l i t i e s " e x is tin g on the two sid es o f the green baize door in the study o f h is f a th e r , C harles Henry Greene, headmaster o f Berkhamsted School. Tormented by the divided u n iv erse , Greene remembered v iv id ly In the j tr a v e l book he wrote about Mexico how he had to go through the symbolic door on Monday mornings to the h a te f u l and hated darkness o f the school: "where one met fo r the f i r s t time c h a ra c te r s , a d u lt and a d o le sc e n t, who Bore about them the genuine q u a lity o f e v l l . " ^ That knowledge was c l a r i f i e d and fixed by h is e a rly i reading. Prom M arjorie Bowen's The Viper o f Milan he I learned a t the age o f fourteen th a t: "Goodness has only I 1 once found a p e rfe c t in carn atio n In a human body and | , never w i l l ag a in , but e v i l can always find a home th e re . In th at world peopled with beings so lik e those of h is | own,*^ i t was "no good" to dream o f being a hero, only a I | D ella S c a le , "who a t l a s t turned from an honesty th at l I never paid and betrayed h is frie n d s and died dishonoured and a f a i l u r e even a t treach ery . . (p. 17) The i 1 sig h ts he looked on in the q u ie t E nglish v illa g e were no ! i 8 ^ le s s "a parody o f some Innocent r u r a l scene" than the j steaming tro p ic s and sca rred highlands o f Mexico. The j 314 atmosphere of the old Inn near h is home was " s i n i s t e r " ; even the s ta in e d -g la s s windows o f the d e n tis t were " s i n i s t e r " ; and the can al by the school conveyed "a sense o f Immediate d a n g e r."9 His apo caly p tic vision of the universe was fixed from the beginning: "The f i r s t thing I remember Is s i t t i n g In a pram a t the top of a h i l l with a dead dog ly in g a t my f e e t ." (p. 1 2 8) i i With such knowledge o f the world and I t s people, i t seemed fo r a time Im possible fo r him to extend fo rg iv en ess. He attem pted s u ic id e se v e ra l times. In "The Revolver in the Corner Cupboard," Greene d escrib es how - - as a 1 7-y e a r-o ld - - he had staved o f f "boredom" . 1 A (1. e. d esp a ir) by p laying Russian r o u l e t t e . On ano ther occasion, he downed seventeed a s p ir in ta b le ts and 1 dove Into a swimming pool. He was saved from the d e sp a ir i th at followed him from Berkhamsted to B a lllo l and Into "Metroland" by psychoanalysis, by h is conversion to C atholicism a t the age o f twenty-two, and by h is I m arriage the follow ing year to Vivien Dayrell-Browning. | Unacknowledged, but perhaps as Important as any l i f e - I | sa v e r, was w ritin g : poems, sh o rt s t o r i e s , novels, essay s, review s, news a r t i c l e s and fe a tu r e s , screen p lay s, on the Nottingham Jo u rn a l In 1925» h is f i r s t book j government r e p o r t s .*-1 During a year*s s t i n t w ithout 315 w a s p u b l i s h e d - - a v o l u m e o f p o e m s e n t i t l e d B a b b l i n g A p r i l . A l t h o u g h t h e t i t l e I s t a k e n f r o m a p o e m b y E d n a S t . V i n c e n t M i l l a y , t h e b o o k r e v e a l s t h e h e a v i e r h e a r t a n d t o n e o f T . S . E l i o t . L i f e I s p r e s e n t e d a s a f a i l u r e a n d a c h e a t a n d m a n a s a S w e e n e y - e s q u e a n i m a l , 12 i w h e n h e I s a l i v e a t a l l . A f t e r B a b b l i n g A p r i l , h e d e v o t e d h i m s e l f t o w r i t i n g p r o s e — w i t h s u c h v i g o r t h a t b y t h e t i m e h e | r e a c h e d M e x i c o h e w a s , a l t h o u g h n o t r e c o g n i z e d c r i t i c a l l y , I o n e o f t h e m o s t p u b l i s h e d w r i t e r s o n b o t h s i d e s o f t h e A t l a n t i c , w i t h s e v e n n o v e l s , a v o l u m e o f s h o r t s t o r i e s , a n d a t r a v e l b o o k a p p e a r i n g u n d e r h i s n a m e — i n a d d i t i o n t o a r t i c l e s , p o e m s , s k e t c h e s , e s s a y s , a n d r e v i e w s i n v a r i o u s a n t h o l o g i e s . A d d i t i o n a l l y , h e w r o t e ' t w o o t h e r n o v e l s a n d b e g a n a t h i r d , w h i c h h e h a s o r d e r e d J s h a l l n e v e r b e p u b l i s h e d . ^ i T h o s e w o r k s , l i k e m o s t o f h i s o t h e r w o r k s o f f i c t i o n , l o n g a n d s h o r t , d e a l w i t h t h e t h e m e s o f b e t r a y a l , t h e f a l l f r o m g r a c e d u r i n g c h i l d h o o d , d e a t h , a n d d u a l i t y ; a l m o s t i n v a r i a b l y , t h e y a r e s e t a g a i n s t a b a c k g r o u n d o f v i o l e n c e . I f t h e d e t e c t i v e n o v e l h a s b e c o m e a f i n e a r t , i a s m a n y I n s i s t , i t o w e s m u c h t o Q r e e n e , w h o s e " t h r i l l e r s " ; i o r " e n t e r t a i n m e n t s ” c o m b i n e a c t i o n w i t h c a r e f u l p s y c h o l o g i c a l a n a l y s i s , s o c i o l o g i c a l c r i t i c i s m , a n d t h e o l o g i c a l i 316 s p e c u l a t i o n . A n d I t i s i n t h e l a t t e r t w o a r e a s t h a t h e h a s m a d e a s p e c i a l c o n t r i b u t i o n . G r e e n e i s , a s N a t h a n A . S c o t t , J r . h a s p o i n t e d o u t , a " C h r i s t i a n t r a g e d i a n " w h o h a s : . . . a p r o f o u n d a n d r a d i c a l a f f i l i a t i o n w i t h C a t h o l i c C h r i s t i a n i t y , a n d w a n t i n g , a s a C h r i s t i a n a r t i s t , l i k e D a n t e i n t h e f o u r t e e n t h c e n t u r y , t o d i s c l o s e t h e p o in t o f J u n c t u r e b e t w e e n i n a t u r e a n d g r a c e , h e h a s u s e d v i o l e n c e a n d m e l o d r a m a a s i n s t r u m e n t s f o r a w a k e n i n g h i s a g e o u t o f i t s l e t h a r g i e s , f o r d e s t r o y i n g i t s s p e c i o u s s e c u r i t i e s a n d r e v e a l i n g I t s u n d e r l y i n g n i g h t m a r e a n d t r a g e d y . H e h a s w a n t e d t o " p r o h i b i t s h a r p l y t h e u n r e h e a r s e d r e s p o n s e , " t o r e s s u r r e c t t h e h e a r t t h r o u g h t e r r o r a n d t o e x h i b i t t h e w o r l d I t s e l f , i n a l l o f I t s d e g r a d a t i o n , a s t h e c o u n t r y w h e r e i n m a n ' s s p i r i t u a l n a t u r e i s t o b e d i s c o v e r e d .Ik | I m p o r t a n t l y , a n d r a r e l y a c k n o w l e d g e d , G r e e n e i s a n a c u t e a n d i n t e n s e s o c i a l c r i t i c . H i s s u b j e c t s h a v e b e e n i d r a w n f r o m h e a d l i n e n e w s o f t h e l a s t f o u r d e c a d e s : t h e D e p r e s s i o n , t h e S p a n i s h C i v i l W a r , W o r l d W a r I I , V i e t n a m , C u b a — t h o s e c a t a c l y s m i c h i s t o r i c a l e v e n t s t h a t h a v e s o l b r u t a l l y r e v e a l e d t h e f a i l u r e o f m o d e r n w e s t e r n a s p l r a - | t l o n s a n d p r a c t i c e s . I n d e e d , a s A r t h u r C a l d e r - M a r s h a l l | n o t e d s o m e y e a r s a g o , " f e w l i v i n g E n g l i s h n o v e l i s t s I d e r i v e m o r e m a t e r i a l f r o m t h e d a l l y n e w s p a p e r t h a n G r a h a m | G r e e n e . " 1 ^ B u t u n l i k e m a n y o t h e r s o f h i s g e n e r a t i o n , | h e r e j e c t s t h e l i b e r a l n o t i o n t h a t g u i l t a n d I n n o c e n c e c a n b e p r e c i s e l y a s s i g n e d t o p o l i t i c a l a n d e c o n o m i c i n s t i t u t i o n s . H i s v i e w o f s e c u l a r s y s t e m s i s b l e a k t o 317 t h e p o i n t o f p e s s i m i s m . H e I n d i c t s c a p i t a l i s t s a n d c o m m u n i s t s a n d s o c i a l d e m o c r a t s a l i k e , r e v e a l i n g t h e l a w l e s s n e s s o f t h e m e n w h o u p h o l d t h e l a w s t h e y h a v e f r a m e d o r p e r v e r t e d . E v e n b e f o r e W o r l d W a r T w o a n d s u b s e q u e n t h o r r o r s , h e w a s a p p a l l e d b y t h e t e n d e n c y o f i r a t i o n a l m a n t o b e s t i a l l z e h i m s e l f . V e r y r e c e n t l y , i G e o r g e S t e i n e r i n L a n g u a g e a n d S i l e n c e e x p r e s s e d t h e t : | f e e l i n g t h a t i s I n h e r e n t I n G r e e n e ' s w o r k s , s o m e o f w h i c h I w e r e w r i t t e n f o r t y y e a r s e a r l i e r : ' My o w n c o n s c i o u s I s p o s s e s s e d b y t h e e r u p t i o n o f b a r b a r i s m I n m o d e r n E u r o p e . . . T h i s I s t h e c r i s i s o f r a t i o n a l h u m a n e e x p e c t a t i o n w h i c h h a s s h a p e d my o w n l i f e . . . I t r o s e f r o m w i t h i n , a n d I f r o m t h e c o r e o f E u r o p e a n c i v i l i z a t i o n . T h e c r y o f t h e m u r d e r e d s o u n d e d I n e a r s h o t o f t h e i ! u n i v e r s i t i e s ; t h e s a d i s m w e n t o n a s t r e e t a w a y f r o m t h e t h e a t e r s a n d m u s e u m s . l 6 T h e a p o c a l y p t i c v i s i o n t h a t G r e e n e t o o k w i t h h i m t o M e x i c o , t h e t h e m e s a n d t e c h n i q u e s t h a t r e a l i z e d f u l l i f l o w e r i n g I n T h e P o w e r a n d t h e G l o r y e m e r g e f r o m h i s v e r y e a r l y b o o k s . T h e M a n W i t h i n (1929)* T h e N a m e o f A c t i o n (1930)* a n d R u m o u r a t N i g h t f a l l (1931) — a l l d e a l w i t h I „ w h a t K e n n e t h A l l o t t a n d M i r i a m P a r r i s h a v e c a l l e d t h e F d i v i d e d m i n d . " ^ I n T h e M a n W i t h i n * t h e d i v i s i o n — t h e g o o d - e v i l , h e a v e n - h e l l d u a l i s m — I s i n h e r e n t I n t h e c h i e f c h a r a c t e r , A n d r e w , a h e r o - v l l l a l n w h o b e t r a y s n o t 1 j m e r e l y h i s s m u g g l e r c o m r a d e s , b u t h i s " g o o d a n g e l 1 1 E l i z a b e t h t o " w a l l o w " w i t h h i s p r o f a n e l o v e . T h e g o o d - 318 e v i l I n t e r i o r d r a m a I s w e a k e r , b u t a l s o a p p a r e n t I n T h e N a m e o f A c t i o n , I n w h i c h t h e p r o t a g o n i s t c a n n o t r e s o l v e h i s c o n f l i c t a b o u t s u p p o r t i n g t h e p u r l t a n c l a l d i c t a t o r . I n R u m o u r a t N i g h t f a l l , t h e I n t e r i o r - e x t e r i o r p a r a l l e l c o n f l i c t s t h a t c h a r a c t e r i z e t h e l a t e r n o v e l s a r e m o r e d e c i d e d . I The next five novels — Stamboul Train (1932); I t *8 a B a t t le f i e l d (193*0; England Made Me, A Gun fo r S a le , and Brighton Rock (1938) — re v eal more c le a r ly how the ! w rite r of th r llle r B was evolving in to a se rio u s a r t i s t . i W h i t e - b l a c k g i v e s w a y t o g r e y - b l a c k , a d v e n t u r e t o e x p e r i e n c e . T h e t e r r o r o f l i f e s e e m s n o l o n g e r m e r e l y a c h i l d i s h f e a r o f d a r k n e s s a n d r e v u l s i o n a g a i n s t s e x , i b u t a r e c o g n i t i o n o f t h e a c t u a l i t y o f e v i l . P o e t r y a n d r e p o r t i n g a r e f u s e d b y v i s i o n a n d t e c h n i c a l b r i l l i a n c e . S t a m b o u l T r a i n I s t h e w e a k e s t o f t h e g r o u p . I n ! J o u r n e y w i t h o u t M a p s . G r e e n e d e s c r i b e s h i s r e a c t i o n t o | t h e f i l m m a d e f r o m t h e b o o k , w h i c h h e h a d s e e n I n j T e n e r i f e : I t w a s a b a d f i l m , o n e o f t h e w o r s t I h a v e e v e r | s e e n ; t h e d i r e c t i o n w a s I n c o m p e t e n t , t h e p h o t o g - I r a p h y u n d i s t i n g u i s h e d , t h e s t o r y s e n t i m e n t a l . | I f t h e r e w a s a n y t r u t h i n t h e o r i g i n a l I t h a d ! b e e n c a r e f u l l y a l t e r e d , i f a n y t h i n g w a s l e f t unchanged I t was because I t was untrue. By what was unchanged I could Judge and condemn my own novelt I could see c le a r ly what was cheap and banal enough to f i t the cheap banal f l l m . l 8 31 9 G r e e n e ' s e s t i m a t e i s h a r s h . T h e J o u r n e y m o t i f I s e f f e c t i v e l y t r e a t e d : t h e c h a r a c t e r s m o r e t h a n " G r a n d H o t e l " t y p e s : P a u l C s l n n e r , a p o l i t i c a l e x i l e e n r o u t e t o p a r t i c i p a t e i n a n u p r i s i n g t h a t i s , l i k e h i m , d o o m e d ; C o r a l M u s k e r , a s h a b b y a n d I n n o c e n t y o u n g d a n c e r h e a d i n g J f o r a p r o m i s e d J o b I n C o n s t a n t i n o p l e ; C a r l e t o n M y a t t , a [ s h r e w d J e w i s h b u s i n e s s m a n w h o h e l p s h e r a n d f a l l s I n l o v e w i t h h e r — a l t h o u g h n o t e n o u g h ; M a b e l W a r r e n , a ! l e s b i a n r e p o r t e r . A l l o f t h e m a r e s e e k e r s , h u r t l i n g I a c r o s s E u r o p e b e t w e e n t h e g l a s s w a l l s o f t h e O r i e n t E x p r e s s , d o o m e d b y t h e c o m p l a c e n c y , t h e v i o l e n c e , t h e c o r r u p t i o n , s e l f i s h n e s s , l u s t , a n d t r e a c h e r y t h a t s t a l k i t h e t r a i n a n d w a i t a t t h e w a y s t o p s . T h e t w o m o s t d i s t i n g u i s h i n g q u a l i t i e s a r e t h e u s e o f t h e c i n e m a t o g r a p h i c t e c h n i q u e a n d t h e p r e o c c u p a t i o n w i t h " s e e d i n e s s . " ! G r e e n e ' s e y e I s t h e c a m e r a e y e , m o v i n g f r o m c o m p a r t m e n t I t o c o m p a r t m e n t , f i x i n g i t s e l f o n t h e s y m b o l i c i m a g e t h a t j s u m s u p k n o w l e d g e . H i s u n e r r i n g d e t e c t i o n o f t h e s e e d y a n d s q u a l i d a p p e a r f i r s t , a s A l l o t t a n d F a r r i s h a v e p o i n t e d o u t , I n t h e s u b s i d i a r y e l e m e n t s o f S t a m b o u l T r a i n . i I I t ' s a B a t t l e f i e l d a n d E n g l a n d M a d e Me c a r r y t h e t h e m e j f u r t h e r ; I n t h e m , " s e e d i n e s s g o e s b e y o n d t h e c r u e l t i e s o f i j I j m a t e r i a l p o v e r t y , e v e n b e y o n d t h e ' s p i r i t u a l b a n k r u p t c y * j "---- l i f e , u n t i l i t s t a n d s f o r a p e r m a n e n t t r u t h h 19 a b o u t t h e h u m a n c o n d i t i o n . 1 1 1 a a B a t t l e f i e l d 1b s i g n i f i c a n t f o r a n o t h e r r e a s o n ; I t I s t h e f i r s t b o o k t o s h o w h o w s t r o n g w a s t h e i n f l u e n c e o f C o n r a d o n G r e e n e 1 s m i n d a n d s k i l l . R e l a t e d t o T h e S e c r e t A g e n t , t h e n o v e l i s c o n c e r n e d w i t h t h e a r b i t r a r y n a t u r e o f J u s t i c e . N o o n e w a n t s J i m D r i v e r | k i l l e d — t h e L o n d o n b u s - d r l v e r s e n t e n c e d t o d e a t h f o r I a c c i d e n t a l l y s t a b b i n g a p o l i c e m a n a t a C o m m u n i s t m e e t i n g . ! C u t t h e m a c h i n e r y h a s b e e n s e t i n m o t i o n , a n d t h e l i v e s o f J i m , h i s b r o t h e r , h i s w i f e a r e d e s t r o y e d b e f o r e I t g r i n d s t o a h a l t . ! E n g l a n d M a d e M e . w h i c h G r e e n e l o n g r e g a r d e d a s h i s i | m o s t s u c c e s s f u l b o o k a f t e r T h e H e a r t o f t h e M a t t e r a n d i j T h e P o w e r a n d t h e G l o r y , c o n v e y s w i t h a k i n d o f I m a g n i f i c e n t h o r r o r t h e I m a g e o f a w o r l d a l m o s t t o t a l l y f a l l e n f r o m g r a c e . T h e g o d o f t h e g l a s s , s t e e l , a n d c o n c r e t e d o m a i n t h i s s i d e o f E d e n I s K r o g h ( p a t t e r n e d a f t e r t h e m u n i t i o n s m a k e r O t t o K r e u g e r ) . A s e l f - m a d e m a n w h o b u y s a n d s e l l s n a t i o n a l g o v e r n m e n t s , c o n v e r t s p e a c e I n t o w a r t o b e n e f i t h i s e m p i r e , h e h a s o n l y t w o w e a k n e s s e s — a d e l i g h t a t s e e i n g h i s n a m e I n l i g h t s a n d | a n a f f e c t i o n f o r h i s s e c r e t a r y - m l s t r e s s K a t e P a r r a n t . B u t t h e w o r l d h e h a s c r e a t e d c a n n o t t o l e r a t e a n y d i s o r d e r i n I t s c a r e f u l l y s t r u c t u r e d c h a o s , a n d m u n l t i o n s - m a k e r 321 J u s tic e is dispensed - - w ith brass knuckles and b u lle ts — a f t e r K ate 's b ro th er Anthony e n te rs the ice p a ra d is e # Anthony, whom Kate r e a lly lo v e s, Is a cheat and a f a i l u r e , a seedy weakling who c a r r ie s with him h is sm ile "as a le p e r c a rrie d h is b e ll . . . a p erp etu al warning th at he M ?1 I was not to be tru s te d . : The two most im portant works leadin g to the Mexican L ! experience are Brighton Rock, w ritte n although not published before h is departure fo r America, and Journey without Maps, (1936) a tra v e l book in the Im p re ssio n istic manner of D. H. Lawrence's Sea and S ard in ia and Mornings ! In Mexico. Brighton Rock (1938) the f i r s t o f the "C atholic n o v els." Based upon a murder th at had occurred a t the racin g r e s o r t , th at a c tu a l i t y Is simply the "instrum ent" - - as Morton D. Zabel has pointed out - - | j fo r "probing the temper and tragedy o f h is age, the perversions and the fe a rs th at have betrayed i t , and the s tric k e n weathers of i t s s o u l ." 22 I The lin e o f demarcation between such novels as | Brighton Rock. The Heart o f the M atter. The End of the ! A f f a i r , and The Power and the Glory and the 1 | "e n te rta in m e n ts” is t h a t , as F rancis L. Kunkel has 1 i ■ a s s e r te d , although the theme of f l i g h t and p u rs u it remains the same, the c h a ra c te rs are now presented ; 322 sub sp ecie a e t e r n l t a t l s . They are s p i r i t u a l as w ell as Id e o lo g ic a l fo e s, re p re se n tin g the opposing ord ers o f the Apocalypse: In the C atholic n o v els, worlds c o llid e : the world th at Ignores C h rist with the one In which in v is ib le r e a l i t i e s are the supreme ones; the world th at denies any e ffic a c y to human s u ffe rin g with the one th at envisions s u ffe rin g as the desideratum fo r b e a u tif ic a tio n ; the world th at e ffa c e s the trac es o f o r ig in a l sin with the world th at pains tak in g ly re tra c e s o r i g i n a l s i r ; the world where love is actu ated s o le ly by e g o t i s t i c impulses with the world where love is the f i n a l answer to e v i l ; and the world th a t sees no sin where there is s in w ith the world th a t Is not s i n - b l i n d . 23 Like o th e r ap o caly p tic re b e ls , Greene has been accused o f the " s a ta n ls t" fa lla c y as a r e s u l t o f th at | a t t i t u d e . P in k ie , the sev en teen -y ear-o ld g an gster who i I is the h e r o - v llla ln o f the book, steep s him self deeper I and deeper in blood as he careens toward damnation. That he is so w i l l f u l l y bent on e v i l Is a reason th at many c r i t i c s deny he Is a " tra g ic h e r o . " ^ Such an a t t i t u d e , however, would deny tra g ic s ta tu r e to any p ro ta g o n ist who brings tragedy upon him self by a r e fu s a l to accept a l t e r n a t i v e co u rses. P in k ie , who rip en s and ro ts in | e v i l , Is transformed from a cheap hoodlum, bent on a revenge-m urder, in to the essence of e v i l : planning the j k i l li n g s o f frie n d s because of h is fe a r th at they "may" s e l l him o u t; tempting h is p a th e tic c h ild wife to k i l l 323 h e r s e l f t o i n s u r e h i s s a f e t y ; d e s t r o y i n g h i m s e l f w h e n t h e v i t r i o l h e i s u s i n g a g a i n s t a n o t h e r f l i e s b a c k I n h i s o w n f a c e a n d s o m a d d e n s h i m w i t h p a i n t h a t h e l e a p s t o d e a t h . E v e n I n d e a t h h i s m a l e v o l e n c e w i l l g o o n * w h e n R o s e p l a y s t h e m e s s a g e o f h a t e h e h a d r e c o r d e d f o r h e r o n t h e i r w e d d i n g d a y . [ i B u t P i n k i e i s , a s K u n k e l a n d o t h e r s h a v e p o i n t e d | o u t , " a t l e a s t m a n e n o u g h t o b e d a m n e d . " H e h a s h a d I i o t h e r o p t i o n s . I t h a d o n c e b e e n h i s i n t e n t i o n t o b e c o m e | a p r i e s t . B u t l i k e F r e d e r i c k R o l f e , t h e d e f r o c k e d p r i e s t ! w h o s e " m o r e t h a n . . . n o r m a l c a p a c i t y f o r e v i l " h a d t u r n e d p o t e n t i a l s a i n t i n t o v i c i o u s s i n n e r , P i n k i e ^ f a i l u r e t o a c h i e v e p r i e s t h o o d m a r k e d a t u r n i n g p o i n t , pC " i f h e c o u l d n o t h a v e H e a v e n , h e w o u l d h a v e H e l l . " G r e e n e ’ s a n a l y s i s o f t h e P l n k i e - R o l f e d u a l i t y i s n o t j | l u n i q u e : T . S . E l i o t h a d s a i d I n a n e s s a y o n B a u d e l a i r e : S o f a r a s w e a r e h u m a n , w h a t w e d o m u s t b e e i t h e r e v i l o r g o o d ; s o f a r a s w e d o e v i l o r g o o d , w e a r e h u m a n ; a n d i t i s b e t t e r , i n a p a r a d o x i c a l w a y , t o d o e v i l t h a n t o d o n o t h i n g : a t l e a s t , w e e x i s t . I t i s t r u e t o s a y t h a t t h e g l o r y o f m a n i s h i s c a p a c i t y f o r s a l v a t i o n ; i t : i s a l s o t r u e t o s a y t h a t h i s g l o r y i s h i s c a p a c i t y ■ f o r d a m n a t i o n . T h e w o r s t t h a t c a n b e s a i d o f m o s t o f o u r m a l e f a c t o r s , f r o m s t a t e s m e n t o t h i e v e s , i s t h a t t h e y a r e n o t m a n e n o u g h t o b e ; d a m n e d .26 ; 1 B o t h G r e e n e a n d E l i o t e c h o C o n r a d ’ s H e a r t o f D a r k n e s s , i n j w h i c h M a r l o w o p t s f o r K u r t s a s t h e n i g h t m a r e o f h i s , 324 choice* — p re fe rr in g him to the le s s demoniacal, but a lso le s s human p ilg rim s. Greene*s indebtedness to Conrad is apparent in the o th e r s ig n if ic a n t book w ritte n before the Mexican j experience, Journey w ithout Maps. The debt was not ! merely one of s t y l e , although he says in "Congo Jo u rn al" I th at he had "abandoned" Conrad in about 1932 "because h is ' influ en ce on me was too g re a t and too d i a s tr o u s . I t I was a lso one o f v isio n and symbol. Like Conrad looking a t a map o f the "heart-shaped" c o n tin e n t, Greene s e le c te d c a r e f u lly the d e s tin a tio n o f h is psychic voyage. He re je c te d Rhodesia and South A frica and any o th e r p ortion In which white s e t t l e r s had managed to reproduce the ! i i co n d itio n s o f t h e i r c o u n trie s — the morals and popular | a r t . What he sought was a " q u a lity o f darkness . . . o f j _pfi j the in e x p lic a b le . He fran k ly regarded the Journey as ! O Q ! the geographical equ iv alen t o f psychoanalysis. * Only in darkness, he f e l t , would the worst be e x te rn a liz e d — 1 o f man and o f o n e se lf; only In darkness, s im ila r ly , would j | the best be e x te rn a liz e d . L ib e ria , th a t unmapped country along the west co ast ! th a t had been s e t t l e d In 1847 by freed s la v e s , o ffe re d i Greene the promise o f the needed darkness: d is e a s e , d e s p a ir, se e d in e ss, v io le n c e , and — eq ually — "the ' Innocence, the v i r g i n i t y , the graves not opened y e t fo r gold, the mind not broken w ith sle d g e s." (p. 313) He could only guess a t the beauty. The h o rro rs o f the dark ness were made c le a r to him by the B r itis h Government i Blue Book, which noted w ith detachment the swarming r a t s , yellow fe v e r, e le p h a n tia s is , lep ro sy , and o th e r d isease s i spreading unchecked w ith only two doctors in the country i t described the commercial e x p lo ita tio n ; the government- condoned violence o f v illa g e s burned, women sh o t, and " s o ld ie rs b o astin g o f having c u t c h ild ren down w ith c u tla s s e s and thrown them in to burning h u ts ." (pp. 5- 6 ) The road back in time and space to th a t "past from which one has emerged" was d i f f i c u l t . In the course of I four weeks, Greene and h is cousin Barbara walked (he refused to allow the bearers to c a rry him) about 350 m iles from Bolahun, Ju s t over the border from S ie rra Leone, to Grand Bassa on the A tla n tic C oast, from which they s a ile d to Monrovia and ev e n tu a lly England. As they ! moved from Metroland — G reene's metaphor fo r our world o f the "sm art, the new, the c h ic , the c e re b ra l" (p. 3 1 2) i j — toward the beginning and c lo s e r to God, the tra v e le rs d iscard ed the " e s s e n tia ls " o f c i v i l i s a t i o n t the medical I k i t w ith I t s In e ffe c tu a l rem edies, the watches th a t t e l l " re a l" tim e, and the autom atic p i s t o l fo r f a s t and 326 Impersonal h i l l i n g . G reene's reason fo r p lacin g the modern western world a t the f a r t h e s t remove from God Is th a t I t s most dominant q u a lity Is the I n a b il i ty to lo v e . In a p erso n al way, lo v e le ssn e ss is expressed In c h ild abuse and l u s t ; in broader s o c ia l r e l a t i o n s , I t is expressed by economic j ■ and p o l i t i c a l e x p lo ita tio n and war - - which Oreene has i | condemned w ith a p assio n ate fu ry . In a s p i r i t u a l way, I t is expressed by man's I n a b i l i t y to e s ta b lis h communion w ith God. Journey w ithout Maps, lik e The Power and the Q lory. p re c is e ly r e f l e c t s th a t love e th ic — th a t m ystique. As he moves deeper in to the Jungle toward Ood and lo v e, he i removes him self f u r th e r from the s o u l- le s s "hollow men"— too cowardly to be damned — although they continue to haunt him: the p a t r i o t i c Major Grant phoning a fash io n ab le b ro th e l because "he lik e d the Idea o f o rd e rin g a woman, as one might order a J o in t o f meat, according to s i r e and cut and p ric e " (p. 75 ); the man and woman in P aris co p u latin g beneath a s t r e e t lamp (p. 3 1 ); the to u ts i peddling sex in Madeira; the Oerman a r t i s t aboard s h ip , I who "believed in H i t l e r and n atio n alism and swimming and lo v e ." (p. 16) He was haunted by the p o l i t i c a l and economic h o rro rs o f the h e l l i s h waste land: In Germany, 327 a t Templehof a i r p o r t , a f t e r the "quick Impression" o f happiness as the wheels o f the plane touched, "among S w astik as, one saw pain a t every y a rd ." (p. 30) In | F re e p o rt, I t was the p ro sp e c to rs , shipping a g e n ts, m erchants, engin eers: "out to make money; and there was | no hypocrisy In t h e i r a t t i t u d e towards the 'bloody b l a c k s '." (p. 40) More Im p ortantly, I t was the " re a l i r u l e r s " — the government o f f i c i a l s and execu tiv es who went to A fric a fo r a few y e a rs , enjoyed long leaves every eig h teen months, gave garden p a r t i e s : I t was these men who had so much to answer fo r: the wages, fo r example, o f the p la te la y e r s on the l i t t l e narrow-gsoge l i n e which runs up to Fendembu n ear the French and L iberian borders. These men were paid sixpence a day and had to buy t h e i r own food, and y e t In the days o f the depression they were docked one d a y 's pay a month. This was perhaps the meanest economy among the many mean economies which a s s is te d S i e r r a Leone through the d e p re ssio n , a dep ressio n caused by the f a l l In p ric e o f palm o i l and palm k e rn e ls , the p referen ce Levers a t th a t time were showing fo r whale o i l . The economies were n ea rly a l l a t the expense o f the coloured man . . . (p. 41) The most a p p a llin g example he o f f e r s to ex p lain the b la c k 's "hatred and suspicio n o f the w hite man" Is the o p eratio n o f the P lre s to n e Company o f Ohio, "a commercial company w ith no I n t e r e s t s In L ib e ria but rubber and d iv id e n d s." (p. 2 8 9) Under the guise o f progress and 1 I n d u s t r i a l i s a t i o n , the L ib erian government, Oreene sa y s, 328 had u n c o n s titu tio n a lly granted the company a n in e ty -n in e | y ear le a s e to more than a m illio n a c re s. Chiefs were j supplying n a tiv e lab o r with no q uestions asked although 1 : there I s , he notes b i t t e r l y , . . . a g re a t moral d i s t in c ti o n between the u su al form o f forced labour In A fric a , which a t l e a s t pretends to be fo r the good o f the community, and the forced lab our fo r the good o f sh a re h o ld e rs, (p. 2 8 9) Moreover, d e s p ite F iresto n e claim s o f h igher wages — from seven o r elghtpence to a s h i l l i n g a day - - workers were being penalized by being forced to buy t h e i r r i c e a t F lresto n e* s company s t o r e s , a t a p ric e hig her than In Monrovlan s to re s and "much d e a re r" than anywhere e ls e In L ib e ria , (p. 290) Halfway between the c i v i l i z e d h e l l and the p rim itiv e suburb o f heaven Is the border country o f the corru pted n a tiv e , the seduced in no cent. As they leave the f o r e s t a t Bassa Town, Qreene Is s tru c k by harbing ers of " c iv il i z a t i o n " ! A young g i r l hung around a l l day p o stu rin g w ith h er thighs and h ip s , su g g e stiv e ly , lik e a t a r t . Haked to the w aist she was conscious o f her nakedness; she knew th a t b re a s ts have a s ig n ific a n c e to the w hite man they dldn*t have to the n a tiv e . There c o u ld n 't be any doubt th a t she had known w hites b e fo re , (p. 2 6 5) The n a tiv e s emulated the commercial and p o l i t i c a l e x p l o i t e r s . Sometimes I t was done on a modest s c a le . 329 w ith buffoonery adding to the "degradation" — as le the ! case w ith Bungle, the F reeport u n d erta k er, who a d v e rtis e d j | h im self as "B uilder fo r the Dead, R ep airer f o r the I L iv in g ." (p. 3 8) When more o f the forms had been i absorbed, the e x p lo ita tio n became more v ic io u s and was e ffe c te d on a la r g e r s c a le . Case In p o in t was P re sid e n t B arclay o f L ib e ria , s t r i c t l y Tammany H all In r h e to r ic and a c tio n . He boasted: "Once e le c te d , and In charge o f the machine — why th en , I*m boss o f the whole show." (p. 122) L esser o f f i c i a l s took t h e i r cue, e x p lo itin g and v ic tim iz in g the bush people so c r u e lly th a t In one v illa g e when Oreene gave a p re se n t o f money to the c h ie f , he "au to m atically held I t out to the ta x -g a th e re r • • ." (p. 233) Bad as B arclay and h is o f f i c i a l s and employees might be, however, t h e i r s in s a re le s s than those o f t h e ir c o u n te rp a rts In the o th e r w orld. The r e a l v i l l a i n In the border country Is Colonel D avis, who had crossed over from c i v i l i z e d h e l l w ith h is demoniacal knowledge and techniques. A former p riv a te In the American Army, Davis had gone to Monrovia a f t e r se rv ic e In Mexico and the P hilippin es to work h is way In to p o l i t i c s . I t was he who had p a r tic ip a te d In and helped to d i r e c t the campaign o f murder and enslavement a g a in st ! the Krus — so h o rrif y in g th a t a League o f Rations in q u iry had been ord ered , (pp. 2* 15- 5 5 ) The th ir d w orld, the world c lo s e s t to God in which he discovered the " lo s t childhood" o f the race o f man, j d i f f e r s not merely in degree, but in kind. I In many o f i t s n a tu ra l a sp e cts th a t world la a p p a llin g . The fo re s t through which Greene and h is group walk has a q u a lity o f deadness: "Like the s h e l l o f a house on a bankrupt housing e s t a t e , i t had never been liv e d i n ." (p. 192) Deep fogs b lin d them; p e ltin g ra in s soak them; the sun is so fero cio u s th a t " I t staggered and sickened me," he sa y s, "even through a sun-helm et." (p. 170) The c re a tu re s in I t symbolize death and d e s tru c tio n : gulnea-worms seeking to Invade through sores in the f e e t (p. 191); Jig g e rs under the n a i l s ; ants fa ste n in g on the fle s h (p. 1 7* 0 J in the settle m e n t h u ts , roaches e a t c lo th e s in to holes and a tta c k humans (pp. 1 7 3- 17**); r a t s , " lik e la rg e c a t s , " leap Into t h e i r sle e p in g q u a r te r s , (p. 1 6 9) The world had I t s share o f t e r r i f y i n g people. The knowingly e v i l ones, however, had come from the o th e r sid e o f the border: the black m issionary from Monrovia who "belelved In ooncrete" and "kept h is b ro th e r blacks w ell In hand" (p. 1 3 9); the " h y p o c ritic a l" and "crooked" p r i e s t (p. 209); the Mohammedan D i s t r i c t Commissioner, 331 " g ro ss, impassive and co rru p t (p. 9*0 3 and most of the n a tiv e government o f f i c i a l s . But there was a ls o another v a rie ty o f t e r r if y in g c r e a tu r e s , the Big Bush D e v ils, I grand m asters o f the bush s o c i e t i e s , "whom i t is death I or blin dness fo r an u n in itia te d n ativ e so much as to s e e ." (p. 162) T heir s o c ie tie s p ra c tic e human s a c r i f i c e and cannibalism (p. 2 1 0) , seeking victim s to f i l l the " r i t u a l need o f the h e a r t, the palms o f the hands, the skin o f the fo re h ead ." (p. 210) But those masked Bush D evils who In sp ired the "purer" t e r r o r o f childhood fe ars had nothing to do w ith good o r e v i l , r e f l e c t i n g a s u p e rn a tu ra l world th a t was "simply power." Like "those w itches which haunted our childhood . . . they t e r r i f i e d us w ith th e ir power, but we knew a l l the time th at we I must not escape them. They simply demanded re c o g n itio n ; j f l i g h t was a weakness." (p. 2 1 3) This world o f the " lo s t childhood," fo r a l l o f i t s t e r r o r s — d is e a s e , d e v ils , d i r t , decay, death — was haloed w ith a kind o f glo ry th at could touch even some of those who had crossed over in to i t . Leaving the Colony and going deeper in to the P r o te c to r a te , he was 1 s tru c k by the change o f manner in the Englishmen w ith i whom he came In c o n ta c t! The Englishmen here d i d n 't ta lk about the 'bloody b la c k s ' nor did they p a tro n ise o r 332 laugh a t them; they had to d eal w ith the r e a l n ativ e and not the C reole, and the r e a l n ativ e was someone to love and admire. One d i d n 't have to condescend; one knew I more about some th in g s , but they knew more j about o th e rs . And on the whole the things ! they knew about were more Im portant. One | c o u ld n 't make lig h tn in g lik e they could* i o n e 's gun was only an Improvement on th e i r 1 | poisoned spear* and unless one was a doctor one had le s s chance o f cu rin g a sn ak e -b lte than they. (pp. 54-55) i However* the only white persons Greene was not tru ly I ashamed of* he says* were the p r i e s t s and nuns he encountered a t an American E piscopal Church mission since they had "a standard of g en tlen ess and honesty equal to the n a tiv e s ta n d a rd ." (p. 9 0 ) Greene d esc rib es him self as deeply moved by those q u a l i t ie s In the n a tiv e s o f gentleness* kindness* and honesty — q u a l i t i e s which "one would not have found* o r a t l e a s t darad to assume was there* in Europe." (p. 87) He tra v e le d through an unpollced country with tw enty-five men who knew th a t the moneybox contained what was to them a fo rtune In s i l v e r . Greene and cousin were unarmed: an automatic* never loaded* never seen* had been hidden in the money box. There was not even an Instance o f p e tty th eft* "though In every v illa g e n a tiv e s swarmed Into the hut where a l l day my things were ly in g about* i soap (to them very precious)* razor* b ru sh es." (p. 8 8 ) He remembered contemptuously the ta lk he had heard In ' 333 F reep o rti "You can have a boy fo r ten y e a rs ," th ey 'd say, "and h e *11 do you In a t the end o f I t , " and lay in g down t h e i r empty g la sse s th ey 'd go out Into the g la rin g s t r e e t and down to the s to re to see whom they could 'd o 1 In the proper understood commercial way th a t morning, (p. 8 8 ) In c o n t r a s t, he found In the jungle a time and a place o f f a i t h , o f legend, of love. He "never wearied" of the tin y v illa g e s In which the tra v e le rs spend th e ir n ig h ts , v illa g e s th a t somehow managed to e x i s t "above the d e s e rt o f tr e e s , hemmed in by a sun too f ie r c e to work under and a darkness f i l l e d with e v i l s p i r i t s . . . " (p. 8 6) They had l i t t l e : w ealth was a sm all p i l e of palm -nuts; they could look forward to le s s - - an old age o f sores and leprosy* They had ev ery th in g : T heir la u g h te r and t h e i r happiness seemed the most courageous things In n a tu re . Love, i t had been s a id , was Invented In Europe by the troubadours, but I t e x is te d here w ithout the trappings o f c i v i l i s a t i o n . They were tender towards th e ir c h ild re n (I seldom heard a cry in g c h ild , unless a t the s ig h t o f a white fa c e , and never saw one b e a te n ), they were tender towards each o th e r In a g en tle muffled way; they d i d n 't scream o r 'r a g '; they never revealed the rasped nerves o f the European poor In s h r i l l speech o r sudden blows. One was aware the whole time o f a standard of co u rtesy to which I t was o n e 's r e s p o n s ib ility to conform, (p. 8 7 ) He found In the v illa g e of Duogobmal "the worst one I need f e a r ." (p. 150) He and h is cousin had come upon I t 33* not g e n tly , but a l l a t once aB they stumbled through the dung and between the cramped and s tin k in g huts to th e ir lampless sle e p in g place among the r a t s . But the worst of th a t world was "bearable because i t was in e sc a p a b le ." (p. 151) He a ls o found on the Journey the b e st: i | . . . the moments o f e x tra o rd in a ry happiness, the sense th a t one was n e a re r than one had ever been to the r a c i a l so u rce , to s a t is f y i n g the ! d e s ire fo r an i n s t in c ti v e way o f l i f e , the sense o f r e le a s e , as when in the course of psychoanalysis one discovers by o n e 's own e f f o r t a r o o t, a prim al memory . . . (p. 1 9 3) At a m ission s t a t i o n , dazed with f a tig u e , his stomach having ceased to fu n c tio n , watching the r a t s — c re a tu re s he had always loathed — scampering along the narrow crack above h is head and Jumping down when he turned out I the la n te r n , he re a liz e d he no longer feared them and suddenly knew: "I was d isco v erin g in myself a thing I I thought I had never possessed: a love of l i f e . " (p. 206) ( I t a l i c s added) I t was almost a decade before the A frican adventure- experience was tra n s la te d in to l i t e r a t u r e , w ith The Heart of the M atter in 19*8. But even in th a t book and in the 1 j l a t e r one, A Burnt-Out Case, which appeared in 1961 a f t e r | his th ird t r i p to A fric a , h is e x p lo ra tio n o f the " h e a rt- shaped c o n tin e n t" was never f u lly completed. Greene remained an a lie n in th a t " th ird world" of Innocence and 335 love and what may, perhaps, be c a lle d "prim al s o u l." He was never able to make the im aginative leap — to see the world through the eyes o f those men, to f e e l th e ir r e la ti o n s h i p s , to commune w ith th e ir gods. \ Mexico, on the o th e r hand, which he loathed w ith | | such passion th at he p re fe rre d to r i s k imprisonment in an E nglish j a i l than to remain fo r a few more months, provided him with an experience o f such I n te n s ity th a t he was able to become a f u l l c i t i z e n a f t e r only the ' b r i e f e s t survey o f I t s topography. But in 1933, he had I mastered the a r t of journeying w ithout maps and had w ith i i him h is theme, h is technique, h is knowledge o f cosmic I d iv is io n s . What Greene perceived in A fric a and Mexico has now I ; ' become n e u r o s c ie n tif ic theory. According to men lik e | C harles M. F a i r , fa n ta sy -rid d en and magical though h is re lig io n s may be, p rim itiv e man is c lo s e r to psychic wholeness than h is modern western descendents. His i ] r e l i g i o n , which su b je c ts him to awe and t e r r o r , is | capable o f becoming "the benign response we c a l l wonder," j en la rg in g h is i m a g i n a t i o n . 3° The way to r e s to r e th a t Is 1 not a c c e n tu a tin g the r a t i o n a l o r encouraging those i E astern r e lig io n s lik e Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Yoga - - which are the r e lig io n s of " a n n ih ila tio n o f consciousness"! — but the kind o f " C h ris tia n ity " th a t encourages "love 336 o f o th e rs and o f beauty o r knowledge, fo r t h e i r own sakes — to no o th e r end." (p. 64) Greene, lik e P a ir , believ ed th a t the s tre n g th of C h r i s t ia n ity is the " fo rtu n a te paradox" th a t enabled c l e r i c s who were "in many cases unregenerate men o f the Id" to hand on a i j legacy "enabling a few to develop inwardly as they had i I been unable or unw illin g to do them selves." (p. 6 5 ) 1 j The Immediate r e s u l t of the Mexican t r i p was a tra v e l book, The Lawless Roads; A Mexican Journey. published In England and America (under the t i t l e Another Mexico) in 1939- I t is not the s o r t o f guide th a t appears on any l i s t o f recommended readings fo r t o u r i s t s . Indeed, I t has been denounced vigorously by Mexican a p o lo g is ts in and out o f th a t coun try. A reasonably ty p ic a l re a c tio n is th a t o f Selden Hodman: Spent the b e t t e r p a rt o f the n igh t reading Lawless Roads. G reene's travelogue o f Tabasco and d h la p a s, and f e e l as i f I ' d been dragged in the mud. Not the mud o f Mexico, although t h e r e 's p len ty o f t h a t , and i t was a l o t s t i c k l e r in 1937 ( I was here then m yself) than i t Is now, but the mud o f a mind to rtu re d by a n x ie tie s and h a tre d s . Far from being redeemed by i t s a u th o r 's C ath olicism , the book seems I p erv erted by i t . . . to see ev ery th in g In Mexico in the l i g h t o f Governor O a rrld o 's Tabasco and the ruined churches l e f t In the wake o f th a t f a n a t ic a l C alles henchman — w e ll, to say the l e a s t , I t ' s a stran g e commentary on the C h ris tia n v ir tu e s o f h u m ility and forgiven ess Greene p r o f e s s e s .31 C e rta in ly the p ic tu re painted by Greene has very 4 337 l i t t l e resemblance to the one by Fanny Calderon de l a Barca o r by such l a t e r B r i t is h and American e n th u s ia s ts as P ro fesso r J . B. Trend and Miss Frances Toor. Greene i n ’subeequent e d itio n s o f the book conceded th a t he ! might have overly emphasized the r e lig io u s co n d itio n s ! "at the expense o f more permanent sid e s o f Mexican l i f e 1 1 3® ! although Rodman's b rig h t opinions o f C h r i s t ia n it y would not have s t i r r e d him. However, he refused to re v is e or r e t r a c t h is o r i g i n a l view, and e x c o ria te d T ren d 's p o s itio n i as "symptomatic o f the inhumanity o f the academic b r a in ." (p. 339) I t I s , of co u rse , g ro ssly u n fa ir o f Greene to have i j * ■ continued to equate the p o lic ie s of P re s id e n t Lazaro I | Cardenas with those o f h is predecessor P lu ta rc o E l f a s C alles and his p o l i t i c a l henchmen.33 But even four years j a f t e r Cardenas had taken o f f i c e , the e f f e c t s o f the C alles I ! program to " e x tirp a te " C ath o licism , which was undertaken to d iv e rt a tte n tio n from his f a c t i o n 's shootings and i lo o tin g s , were being f e l t , C alles had given lo c a l governments c a r te blanche to indulge In a n tl-C a th o llc p e rse c u tio n , and many had experimented w ith w ild e st i ; i enthusiasm . In J a l i s c o , f o r example, Governor Guadalupe I * Zuno had closed the J e s u i t I n s t i t u t e o f Science and placed the e n tir e stu d en t body under a r r e s t . He perm itte d the commandant o f G uadalajara to d e sp o il more 338 than a ix thousand square m iles In the northern p a r t o f the s t a t e , a f t e r plundering o b je c ts and p ro p e rtie s of value and crowding s ix ty thousand peasants Into co n cen tratio n camps on charges o f r e lig io u s s e d itio n . In southern Mexico, p ersecu tio n was even more vigorous, p a r ti c u l a r ly In Chiapas and In Tabasco, whose ! Governor Tomas Garrldo Canabal became the most hated man In Mexico. A fte r o rg a n isin g an army of "Red S h irts " to le v e l every church In h is t e r r i t o r y , he got r i d o f the l ! remaining eleven p r i e s t s In Tabasco In the f a l l of 1925 i when he Issued a decree p ro h ib itin g unmarried clerg y from o f f i c i a t i n g w ith in the s t a t e . 35 | Cardenas had been able to h a lt the program in 1937, when he e x ile d G arrldo Canabal a f t e r n a tio n a l fury was c re a te d by p o lic e k i l li n g s o f a group o f peasants In j 36 Veracruz who had been attem p tin g to re b u ild a church. i ! Although most s t a t e governments complied w ithin a few months w ith Cardenas* o rd er to a b s ta in from persecu tio n o f C a th o lic s ," o f f i c i a l s In Chiapas and Tabasco Ignored the mandate. In the sp rin g o f 1938, when Greene was v i s i t i n g those p la c e s , I t was s t i l l Impossible fo r I ! C ath o lics to re ceiv e the sacram ents except s e c r e t l y . In i I I V l l l a h e r m o s a , a n I m p o r t a n t s i t e i n T h e P o w e r a n d t h e G l o r y a t j u s t a b o u t t h e t i m e o f G r e e n e * s v i s i t t h e p o l i c e h a d j i _ opened f I r e — with d ev estin g consequences — on a crowd 33 9 o f men* women, and c h ild re n who were s e t t i n g up an a l t a r In the ru in s o f a c h u r c h . There were no churches I n ta c t in the e n tir e a re a . Another q u a lity o f Mexican C atholicism in Mexico that stim u la te d h is p assio n ate p r o te s t was the c h u rch 's ! obvious poverty. One thing the re v o lu tio n had done was b to s t r i p the C atholic Church In Mexico o f I t s vast i holdings and g re a t w ealth. C le ric s were poor, fo r the i most p a r t , and the churches th at Greene v i s i te d a lso showed signs o f p o v erty , an Important p o in t sin ce G reene's C atholicism Is a "p rim itiv e" C atholicism ; h is gospel, I the s o c ia l gospel th a t b le sse s the poor and e x c o ria te s | j the money changers. That has been Inh erent In his ! r e lig io u s sense. In The Lawless Roads, he p ra is e s a f s t r i k e organised by Mexican pecan workers w ith the help f o f F ather Lopes a g a in st m iserable wages; t h i r t y ce n ts to i i one d o lla r and f i f t y cents a day; | This s t r i k e was the f i r s t example I had come ! across o f genuine C 'th o llc Action on a s o c ia l Is s u e , a r e a l a tte m p t, led by the o ld , f i e r y , ! h a lf - b lin d A rchbishop, to put Into force the i papal e n c y c lic a ls which have condemned c a p ita lis m q u ite as stro n g ly as Communism.38 This same a t t i t u d e Is re sp o n sib le fo r h is saying of ! C a s tro 's Cuba almost twenty years l a t e r th at the r e a l enemies o f the Church are "not the Communist le a d e rs; they are C ardinal Spellman and Bishop Sheen, those 3**0 doughty champions o f cold war and c o u n te r-re v o lu tio n , churchmen fo r whom Pope John XXIII seems to have liv e d in v a in . ”39 P o l i t i c a l l y , Greene found Mexico d e te s ta b le . By the time Ia z a ro Cardenas took over from the C a lle s f a c tio n Mexico was "going F a s c is t." Garrldo C anabal's "Red i i S h ir ts " had power; but the "Gold S h ir ts " — who appeared j i ✓ j in 1932 — had even more. Cardenas, consequently, was i o p eratin g in a narrow passage, hemmed in by the Communists on one sid e and the F a s c is ts on the o th e r and w ith the overwhelming problem of try in g to keep Mexico fre e from domination by fo reig n c a p i t a l i s t s . To do th a t, ; \ ' j he had to make some b iz a rre compromises — Including supplying the Axis powers with o i l a f t e r he n a tio n a liz e d 1 * the o i l in d u stry In 1938, removing i t from B r itis h and American c o n tro l. Greene, who had been p a s sio n a te ly j opposed to Fascism fo r y e a rs , understandably despised | Cardenas and the government, p a r tic u l a r ly since a t that time he regarded the Church as "perhaps the only body i | in the world today which c o n s is te n tly - - and sometimes 1 s u c c e ss fu lly — opposes the t o t a l i t a r i a n S ta te . . . "^0 ! 1 1 | The Mexican p o litic o s sickened him: j 1 I On the balcony o f the Government o f f ic e s the j p o lltle a n s stood a l l day. A fte r Mexico I s h a l l always a s s o c ia te balco n ies and p o l i ti c i a n s — j plump men with blue chins wearing s o f t hats and 1 _______ 4 uai-.on .th eir h ip s . They look down from the 1 341 o f f i c i a l balcony In every c i t y a l l day long w ith nothing to do but s t a r e , w ith the expression of men keeping an eye on a good th in g, (pp. 45-46) There were o th e r signs of ru th le s s power. Even such a l i b e r a l l y o rie n te d h is to r ia n as Lesley Byrd Simpson, who has acknowledged the g re a t accomplishments o f C&rdenas, i has pointed out th at when he stepped down as P resid en t i ; in 1940: . . . Mexico remainb a m ilita ry o lig a rc h y , and the Army sucks up a fo u rth o f the government's I Income. S o ld ie rs are everywhere, and t h e i r 1 only conceivable function Is to hold down the j r e s t l e s s populace, a f f l i c t e d by hunger and choked by a prodigious b i r t h r a t e , and ready to follow any impassioned o r a to r who promises | to lead them out o f the w ild e rn e s s .41 ! I t Is not s u r p r is in g then th a t G reene's Mexico j ! j d iffe re d so r a d ic a lly from the Toor-Trend p ic tu re o f th at country as an Ever-Ever land o f b r i l l i a n t flowers and j I a rc h a e o lo g ic a l and e c c l e s i a s t i c a l m arvels, o f haunting i music and e a re fre e re v e lin g , o f a r t i s t s and craftsm en shaping new b ea u ties while lovely g i r l s smiled in v ita tio n s i i and w h ite -s u ite d peasants snoozed b l i s s f u l l y beneath 1 | g ia n t emerald c a c tu se s. i Mexico seemed to Greene the p e r fe c t metaphor fo r i "the g o d -b ereft world In i t s len g th and b read th , I t s | ; various h i s t o r y , the many races o f man" — th at "v isio n to dizzy and ap p all" th a t had so i n f l i c t e d upon C ard in al i Newman's mind "the sense of a profound mystery, which is 342 a b s o l u t e l y b e y o n d h u m a n s o l u t i o n . " A n d f o r t h a t r e a s o n t h e b o o k i s p r e f a c e d w i t h C a r d i n a l N e w m a n * s q u o t a t i o n , w h i c h c o n c l u d e s : W h a t s h a l l b e s a i d t o t h i s h e a r t - p i e r c i n g , r e a s o n - b e w i l d e r i n g f a c t ? I c a n o n l y a n s w e r , t h a t e i t h e r t h e r e i s n o C r e a t o r , o r t h i s l i v i n g s o c i e t y o f m e n i s I n a t r u e s e n s e d i s c a r d e d f r o m H i s p r e s e n c e . . . i f t h e r e b e a G o d , s i n c e t h e r e i s a G o d , t h e ^ u m a n | r a c e i s i m p l i c a t e d I n s o m e t e r r i b l e a b o r i g i n a l i | c a l a m i t y . A n d , i n M e x i c o a s i n A f r i c a , G r e e n e h o p e d t o f i n d t h e 1 ; c l u e s - - t h e " f i n e r " s e n s e o f t a s t e , t h e " k e e n e r " s e n s e 42 o f p l e a s u r e , t h e " d e e p e r a n d p u r e r " s e n s e o f t e r r o r t h a t w o u l d r e s t o r e h o p e a n d r e - e s t a b l i s h G o d i n t h e w o r l d . ; | | ! A s i n t h e A f r i c a n b o o k , G r e e n e ' s a c c o u n t o f h i s ! i j ' t r a v e l s i n M e x i c o e n c o m p a s s e s h i s v o y a g e s t h r o u g h a c t u a l i a n d t r a n s c e n d e n t w o r l d s . O f l e a s t I n t e r e s t I s t h e j f o r m e r - - w h i c h b e g i n s a t t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s b o r d e r , t a k e s i h i m t h r o u g h M e x i c o C i t y a n d f a m i l i a r t o u r i s t c o u n t r y a n d , 1 t h e n s o u t h t h r o u g h t h e s w a m p s a n d J u n g l e s o f T a b a s c o , i w h e r e s t i l l n o r o a d s r u n i n m a n y p l a c e s , o v e r t h e m o u n t a i n s I t o t h e t o w e r i n g p l a t e a u o f C h i a p a s t o t h e " v e r y C a t h o l i c ! C i t y " o f L a s C a s a s . A t t h e e n d o f t h e t w o m o n t h s , h e j i r e t u r n e d t o M e x i c o C i t y a n d a g a i n t o V e r a c r u z , t h i s t i m e I I t o b o a r d t h e s h i p f o r E n g l a n d a n d h o m e . T h a t J o u r n e y a i w a s i n m a n y w a y s a f a i l u r e , a n d i n a l m o s t e v e r y w a y I t i w a s p r e p o s t e r o u s . G r e e n e ' s k n o w l e d g e o f S p a n i s h w a s 3*3 s h a k y ; h i s m e d i c a l s k i l l e l e m e n t a r y f o r p l a c e s r i d d e n w i t h r a r e d i s e a s e s a s w e l l a s m a l a r i a a n d o t h e r c o m m o n in e n d e m i c I l l n e s s e s ; h i s f u n d s w e r e s o l i m i t e d t h a t a l m o s t I n v a r i a b l y h e t r a v e l e d I n t h e s t y l e o f t h e i c o u n t r y . H e w a s u t t e r l y a l o n e , a n d w a s a c u t e l y a w a r e i < t h a t t o d i v u l g e t h e p u r p o s e o f h i s t r i p m i g h t m e a n 1 j i n s t a n t e x p u l s i o n f r o m M e x i c o — i f h e w e r e t h a t j f o r t u n a t e . ^ i ! B u t t h e t r a n s c e n d e n t j o u r n e y w a s b r i l l i a n t l y I ! s u c c e s s f u l , a s m i g h t b e e x p e c t e d o f a m a n I s l e s s i n t e r e s t e d I n m i c r o s c o p i c d e t a i l s o f t i m e a n d s p a c e a n d , d i s t a n c e t h a n I n t e l e s c o p i c s c r u t i n y o f h e a v e n a n d h e l l . i A g a i n , a s I n J o u r n e y w i t h o u t M a p s , t h e t e r r i t o r y i s | s h a r p l y d i s t i n g u i s h e d b y I t s d i s t a n c e f r o m G o d . T h e h e l l - c l v l l l z a t l o n l a n d a t t h e b e g i n n i n g a n d t h e e n d I s i p o p u l a t e d b y t h e m e n l e d a n d t h e l o v e l e s s m o d e r n . H e l l i s E n g l a n d , w h e r e p e o p l e p l a y " M o n o p o l y , " f o r n i c a t e a n d m u r d e r w i t h d e t a c h m e n t , p o s s e s s — w i t h o u t l o v e o r r e s p o n s i b i l i t y — c h i l d r e n a n d l a n d . I t I s a l s o S a n A n t o n i o a n d L a r e d o , w i t h t h e m o n e y - c h a n g e r s a n d t h e j I b r a n d y - a n d - C o c a - C o l a h i g h b a l l s , f r e a k s h o w s , a n d h o t e l ■ s k y s c r a p e r s s o a r i n g m o c k i n g l y a b o v e t h e h o v e l s o f w o r k e r s . : I I t I s M e x i c o C i t y , w i t h m l l k b a r s , a n d f u n e r a l w r e a t h s j t e n f e e t h i g h , w i t h a l o t t e r y b u i l d i n g a n d h i d e o u s s l u m s | 344 behind the smart s t r e e t s where the diplomats li v e . At the end o f the journey, there is even the more hideous c i v i l i z e d h e ll- s h lp of fo o ls — remarkably lik e Lawrence's and P o r t e r 's — where the whole world was ex h ib ited In "a kind o f crazy montage." (p. 280) The people Included the S yrian woman who "never washed" and "never concealed her [ | j envy and hate fo r a l l the Western World" (p. 270); the j Mexican F a la n g is ts cry in g "Viva Franco" (p. 279)5 the German I n s tr u c tin g h is countrymen th a t the F a s c is ts were not a t h e i s t s lik e the re d s , but had a Ood: a fo rc e , a ; " p r in c ip le ." (p. 279) When one of the men leaped ' i [ overboard and drowned, the Nordics evidenced a " f a in t ! ! peevish h atred " fo r the Inconvenience; the L atin s " d id n 't , care a t a l l . " And with " t e r r i b l e quickness" people "got ; i t h e i r a p p e t i t e s b a c k In t i m e f o r d i n n e r . " ( p . 28o) T h e I , p a r a l l e l s b e t w e e n G r e e n e ' s n o n - f l c t t o n a l b o a t a n d t h e 1 V e r a a r e s t r i k i n g ; h e , u n d o u b t e d l y , i n f l u e n c e d P o r t e r , a s L a w r e n c e h a d d o n e . ! i i B e t w e e n t h a t c o u n t r y a n d t h e o n e c l o s e s t t o h e a v e n ' w a s t h e h e l l i s h s u b u r b o f t h e n a t i v e s w h o h a v e b e e n t I | co rru p ted by western c i v i l i z a t i o n . In i t were the "g e t- rlch -q u lc k -b eg g ars" on the s ta tio n p la tfo rm ," lik e mangy animals In a neglected zoo." When someone threw a coin to a middle-aged p a r a l y t i c , "a c h ild o f s ix or seven i 345 l e a p t o n h i s b a c k a n d a f t e r a n o b s c e n e a n d h o r r i f y i n g s t r u g g l e , g o t i t f r o m h i m . " ( p . 7 0 ) I n i t , t o o , w k s t h e M e x i c a n d e n t i s t i n t h e W a i k i k i n i g h t c l u b , w h e r e p r o s t i t u t e s , " w e a r i n g l i t t l e g o l d c r o s s e s , l o l l e d o n t h e s o f a s . " ( p . 8 8 ) I n t h a t w o r l d w a s t h e w a i t e r w h o h a d " n o d d e d m o r e w i n n i n g l y , d a r k l y , k n o w i n g l y " w h e n G r e e n e j j i h a d a s k e d f o r a b o t t l e o f s o d a t o t a k e t o h i s r o o m a n d w h o l a t e r c a m e t o t h e d o o r a n d " s c r a t c h e d , s c r a t c h e d a t i ' t h e p a n e . " ( 265) I n i t w e r e t h e p o l i t i c i a n s a n d t h e p i o u s , 1 1 t h e m e r c h a n t s a n d m i l i t a r i s t s — a p i n g t h e m a n n e r s a n d m o r a l s o f t h e W e s t . I I n t h a t f a r t h e s t c o u n t r y — t h a t c o u n t r y o f t h e p r i m a l ! I | m e m o r y , t h e l o s t c h i l d h o o d , t h a t i s c l o s e t o G o d - - t h e r e f 1 i i s I n n o c e n c e a n d t r u s t a n d l o v e a n d b e a u t y a n d t h e " p u r e r " ; | | t e r r o r a n d w o n d e r . I t s l a n d s c a p e I s r e v e a l e d o n c e , o n t h e I 1 ! h i g h p l a t e a u n e a r L a s C a s a s . I n t h e c o o l e v e n i n g a s t h e y ! l e f t t h e f o r e s t a n d c a m e o u t o n w h a t s e e m e d " t h e t o p o f i „ i t h e w o r l d , G r e e n e s a w s h e e p a n d g o a t s b e i n g d r i v e n b y a n ; I n d i a n p e a s a n t t h r o u g h t h e y e l l o w g r a s s , h e a r d a h o r n i w i n d i n g , a n d w a t c h e d " t h e l a s t p a l e g o l d e n l i g h t w e l l i n g a c r o s s t h e p l a i n , d r o p p i n g d o w n o v e r t h e r i d g e w h i c h e n d e d | i t a s i f o v e r t h e w o r l d ' s e d g e . " ( p p . 2 1 5 - 1 6 ) B u t b e y o n d j i t h e r i d g e w a s a n e v e n o l d e r w o r l d : j . . . t h e g r o u n d s l o p e d u p t o w h e r e a g r o v e o f j t a l l b l a c k c r o s s e s s t o o d a t a l l a n g l e s l i k e 346 windblown tre e s a g a in st the blackened sky. There was the Indian r e lig io n — a dark, tormented, magic c u l t . . . here in the mountainous strange world o f F ather Las Casas, C h r is tia n ity went on i t s own frig h te n in g way. Magic, y e s, but we are too apt to minimize the magic element in C h r is tia n ity — the man ra is e d from the dead, the d e v ils c a s t o u t, the w ater turned in to wine. The g re a t c ro sse s leaned in ! t h e i r black and windy s o litu d e , sa fe from the p ls to le r o s and the p o l i t i c i a n s , and one though o f the s p i t t l e mixed with clay | to h ea l the b lin d man, the re s u rre c tio n of { the body, the r e lig io n o f the e a rth , (p. 2 1 6) I i The in h a b ita n ts he had seen e a r l i e r , a t San L uis, when he | had gone in to the c a th e d ra l fo r Mass and fo r r e l i e f a f t e r fe e lin g Mexico f a l l "on the s p i r i t lik e a cloud": . . . the peasants kneel In th e ir blue dunga rees and hold out th e ir arms, minute a f t e r < m inute, in the a t t i t u d e o f c r u c if ix io n ; an i old woman s tru g g le s on her knees up the stone flo o r toward the a l t a r ; another l i e s f u l l I len gth with her forehead on the sto n e s. A long dayfe work is behind, but the m o rtific a tion goes on. This is the atmosphere o f the ! stig m a ta , and you r e a l i s e suddenly th a t I perhaps th is is the population o f heaven - - these aged, p a in f u l, and ignorant faces: they are human goodness." (p. 44) | He found them again in the Indian v illa g e s In the south, i the l i t t l e men w ith t h e ir black mops o f h a i r , su re-fo o ted and s i l e n t , Is o la te d from the "new race" by language and by command. A ll but one man in each v i l l a g e , who knew a i l i t t l e Spanish, were forbidden to communicate with o u ts id e r s , the co rru p ted from the o th e r w orlds. Oreene became aware th a t h is guide was made uneasy by them: he 3^7 could not put up " th a t Mexican facade o f bonhomie — the embrace, the s p a r, the Joke — w ith which they hide from themsleves the c r u e lty and treach ery of t h e ir l i f e . " (P. 2 H ) Oreene could speak with the Indians - - in the i language o f eoul I f not In the Indian d i a l e c t s . I t ' \ c o n s titu te d the bridge over which he trav eled In c u ltu re j and race to become and c r e a te F ather X, the s ln n e r - s a ln t o f The Power and The G lory. Although The Lawless Roads provides very l i t t l e p r a c t i c a l inform ation about Mexico, the account o f the two months of lo a th in g and t e r r o r he spent in th a t i j country does provide e x tra o rd in a ry in s ig h ts Into the i c r e a tiv e mind, the curious workings o f genius as I t ! e x tr a c ts I t s own s ig n ific a n c e s and sy n th esizes them Into i j i I a new s ig n if ic a n c e . Although Greene deeply admired Henry I i James, c a l l i n g him re v e re n tly "The M aster," and applauding the way James had revealed in h is p refaces how [ "the planned e f f e c t has been s u b s titu te d fo r the lucky s t r o k e , "^5 he has not been as sy stem atic o r s u c c e ss fu l In tra c in g h is own processes as a guide to o th e r l i t e r a r y | p r a c t i t i o n e r s , "in Search o f a C haracter" Is too s e l f - conscious to be o f genuine h e lp , I th in k , but The Lawless \ Roads. which he acknowledged to co n tain the "source" of 3^8 T h e P o w e r a n d t h e Q l o r y . d o e s o f f e r a r e m a r k a b l e r e v e l a t i o n o f t h e c r e a t i v e p r o c e s s . I t m a k e s I t p o s s i b l e t o s e e t h e " g e r m " i n I t s f r e e s t a t e a n d t o w a t c h i t a f f e c t t h e s u s c e p t i b l e a r e a s a n d s p r e a d . T h e c r e a t i v e w o r k i n g s a r e n o d e e p w e l l , b u t a l i m p i d p o o l . I n d e e d , f t o r e a d T h e P o w e r a n d t h e G l o r . v a f t e r r e a d i n g T h e L a w l e s s 1 j R o a d s i s t o s e e a s t o n e s u b m e r g e d . T h e s m a l l , d r y , s h a r p , j c l e a r i t e m w a v e r s a n d s w e l l s ; o u t l i n e s b l u r a n d a s s u m e | s t r a n g e s h a p e ; c o l o r s , e a r l i e r s e c r e t , g l o w b r i l l i a n t l y . E v e r y t h i n g b e c o m e s l a r g e r t h a n t h e d r y a c t u a l i t y , m o r e g l e a m i n g , m o r e s t r a n g e . i ; ! T h e t h r e e a s p e c t s o f t h e c h a n g e t h a t a r e m o s t o b v i o u s a r e t h e a r t i s t ' s e x t r a o r d i n a r y p e r c e p t i v e n e s s , h i s t h r i f t , ; | a n d t h e p e r s i s t e n c e o f o l d a t t i t u d e s a n d k n o w l e d g e s . i D e s p i t e t h e b r e v i t y o f h i s s t a y , G r e e n e ' s r e s p o n s i v e n e s s i i j t o s e e m i n g l y i s o l a t e d a n d I n s i g n i f i c a n t d a t a e n a b l e d h i m t o c a t a l o g u e t h e e n t i r e c o u n t r y — t o t h e l a s t c o c k r o a c h , t h e l a s t g o l d t o o t h . A n d e v e r y t h i n g h e u s e d i n t h e t r a v e l I b o o k w a s r e t a i n e d f o r f u t u r e r e f e r e n c e I n t h e n o v e l . H e s t o r e d i m p r e s s i o n s a s n e a t l y a n d o b s e s s i v e l y a s a t h r i f t y 1 kS h o u s e w i f e s a v e s p a p e r a n d s t r i n g . N o t h i n g w a s w a s t e d ; j n o t h i n g w a s l o s t . | I B u t , o f c o u r s e , n o t h i n g a p p e a r e d a f t e r t h e t w o - y e a r I p e r i o d o f i m a g i n a t i v e s u b m e r s i o n a s I t h a d a p p e a r e d 3^9 47 b efo re. The more l i t e r a l account o f G reene's Journey through a " d iff e re n t h e ll" begins in San Antonio, Texas. He used d e t a i l s and Im pressions gathered there in the novel; and h is i r r i t a t i n g w ait fo r a rid e south In Laredo and Nuevo Laredo provided him with the m a te ria l fo r "Across the | B ridg e," a s h o rt sto ry w ritte n in 1 9 3 8 . His Journey i I was f a r from the main to u r is t c e n te rs . A fte r a few days ' in Mexico C ity , he went to V eracruz, where he embarked on the Rulz Cano fo r Tabasco d e s p ite the glum m utterings o f the American consul,who, Greene say s, regarded him as j a f o o l . 1 *9 He a rriv e d a t F ron tera a f t e r a wretched 42- • J i | hour t r i p on the G ulf, s a ile d up the G rija lv a to the c a p i t a l , V lllaherm osa. From th e re , he took a plane to S a lto de Aqua, where he was to meet a guide to take him I i to Palenque and Y ajalon, a v illa g e in the Chiapas mountains. From th e re , he was to go to "th a t very C atholic c ity " o f San C ris to b a l de la s Casas — "the beginning of home.”50 The p h y sic a l hardships he endured were even more | in ten se than those experienced by Lawrence on h is t r ip ! ' down the west c o a s t. A 15-hour muleback rid e through the Jungles to Falenque l e f t him so s ic k and exhausted th a t he simply Ignored the r u in s , drin king corn co ffee in an [ 350 Indian h u t. A fte r being stran d ed fo r a week In the v illa g e of Y ajalon, he went by muleback acro ss the 9j000-foot mountains to Las Casas — three fou rteen-h our s tr e tc h e s In b o n e -c h lllln g ra in and co ld . Beyond the p h y sical hardships were o th e r te r r o r s : in Las Casas, i the a n tl-g rln g o dem onstrations s e t o f f by the | j n a tio n a liz a tio n o f the o i l in d u stry caused him under stan d ab le concern about mob a tta c k ; and a l l along the way he was aware th at I f the Mexican government knew | the purpose o f h is t r i p , he was l i a b l e to exp ulsion , imprisonment, o r worse. ! Undeniably, I t had been a bad time. But back in the i g r i t o f a London a fte rn o o n , a f t e r an unwarranted evacuation d r i l l , with poverty and l u s t c a llin g to each I j o th e r "as usual" and "the g re a t chance of death . . . I d elay e d ,"^ 1 Mexico took on a new a sp e c t. And the people ; i he had met, the places he had known, the emotions he had experienced were reordered Into the shape and meaning of i i The Power and the G lory. The o rd e al o f "Father So-and-So" a ls o begins on a day e a rly In March a t F ro n te ra , where a f t e r more than i nine years o f hiding In f o r e s ts and swamps he has come to board the l i t t l e steam er s a i l i n g fo r Veracruz and i s a fe ty . But w hile the p r i e s t Is w aitin g with Mr. Tench, < 351 the eeedy d e n ti s t he encountered on the quay* a sm all boy persuades him to m in iste r to h is dying mother. Before he Is f i n a l l y shot In the co u rty ard o f the J a i l In V lllaherm osa, the p r i e s t has re tra c e d Oreene*s “law less roads" — the la b y rin th in e ways lead in g from Ood to God. I The a c tio n lin e Is as simple and d ir e c t as I f the | novel had been designed fo r a film audience. The Job of j c a p tu rin g the p r i e s t , which must be e ffe c te d before the ra in season. Is undertaken by a f a n a tic a l p o lice lie u te n a n t. Determined to make a good l i f e on e a rth for people who have been victim ized by the church, he is i , i I I prepared to take as hostages and k i l l o f f every male j i I a d u lt in the s t a t e to capture the fu g itiv e p r i e s t . | The chase Is an e x c itin g one, with the victim | managing time a f t e r time to elude h is p u rsu ers. He Is | p ro te c te d a t the banana s t a t i o n on the banks o f the G rija lv a by a 13-year-old E nglish g i r l , C oral Fellows. L a te r, v illa g e r s In the place where seven years e a r l i e r he had fath ered B rlg ld a , clo se ranks to conceal h is I d e n tity . A fte r being J a ile d In V lllaherm osa, where he had gone to buy wine needed to c e le b ra te Mass, the p riso n e rs re fu se to betray him; and In C hiapas, he fin d s a haven a t the fln c a of a German-American and h is s i s t e r . ] As he Is about to leave fo r Las Casas and s a f e ty , he \ 352 r e t u r n s t o T a b a s c o a n d J e o p a r d y — a n s w e r i n g t h e a p p e a l o f t h e J u d a s - m e s t i r o t o p r o v i d e f i n a l r i t e s f o r t h e d y i n g A m e r i c a n g a n g s t e r . H e I s t h u s d e l i v e r e d t o t h e l i e u t e n a n t * w h o t a k e s h i m p r i s o n e r ; r e t u r n s h i m t o t h e c a p i t a l ; a n d o r d e r s h i s e x e c u t i o n . O n a n o t h e r l e v e l ; t h e n o v e l i s f a r m o r e c o m p l e x ; I i d e a l i n g w i t h t h e j o u r n e y o f a s o u l t h r o u g h t h e h e l l i s h , a b y s s I n o r d e r t o r e a c h t h e h e a v e n t h a t i s a c c e s s i b l e | t o t h o s e w h o h a v e e n d u r e d c r u c i f i x i o n . L i k e M a l c o m L o w r y ; w h o w a s a l s o i n M e x i c o a t t h e t i m e e x p e r i e n c i n g a v i a c r u c l s . a n d l i k e o t h e r C a b b a l l s t S ; ! | I G r e e n e h o l d s t h e v i e w t h a t e v i l i s e x p r e s s e d l e s s b y | s i n f u l a c t i o n s t h a n b y t h e i n a b i l i t y t o l o v e . A c c o r d i n g | t o t h a t d o c t r i n e — c o m m o n t o m y s t i c s a n d t o n g o o d m a n y i s y m b o l i s t p o e t s - - l o v e u n i t e s m a n w i t h G o d a n d s a v e s h i m i f r o m s p i r i t u a l i s o l a t i o n . T o a c h i e v e t h a t u l t i m a t e c o m m u n i o n ; t h e d e m o n s o f p r i d e m u s t b e e x o r c i s e d b y ! w h a t e v e r m e t h o d s ; p a i n ; h u m i l i a t i o n ; d e g r a d a t i o n ; a n d I e v e n ; i f n e c e s s a r y ; c r u c i f i x i o n . A t h e m e t h a t r u n s t h r o u g h m a n y o f G r e e n e ' s b o o k s I s t h e n o t i o n t h a t G o d ' s l o v e , l i k e S c o b l e ' s I n T h e H e a r t o f t h e M a t t e r . I s | o c c a s i o n e d n o t b y b e a u t y b u t b y s u f f e r i n g a n d f a i l u r e . ^ j T h r o u g h " h o l y s u f f e r i n g " a n d l o v e o f G o d a n d m a n , t h e ! s c a p e g o a t - s I n n e r a c h i e v e s h i s o w n r e d e m p t i o n a n d t h e 353 redemption of those who recognize the mark o f Grace upon him. In the eyes of most, blinded by the f a ls e r e a l i t y o f th is world* he is not recognizable because the hazardous Journey he makes through the abyss to recover i h is soul marks him. And the Journey Is hazardous. As Greene p o in ts o u t: "The g r e a te s t s a in ts have been men ! w ith a more than normal c a p a c ity fo r e v i l , and the most vicious men have sometimes narrowly evaded s a n c ti ty . J 1 Greene1 s vlev;s about the need fo r love and the good- i e v i l c o n f lic t are not and v/ere not regarded favorably by a larg e segment o f C atho lics who* lik e Pope Innocent I I I , ! "have no le is u r e to m editate on supermundane th in g s ." - ^ What led him to the church was not "unconvincing p h ilo so p h ic a l argum ents," but the sense o f m ystery.55 p * o r h is baptism , he adopted the name o f S t. Thomas the doubterj i i not Thomas Aquinas (p. 1 6 9) and continued — as a n o v e lis t - - to be a thorn in the sid e o f orthodoxy, ! perhaps as A.A. DeVltls has suggested "In o rd er to i 1 j reawaken the re ad er to a comprehension o f the e s s e n t i a l J mystery o f l l f e . " ^ The Power and the Glory was a c tu a lly | condemned by the Holy O ffice because I t was "paradoxical" ; and " d e a lt with e x tra o rd in a ry circ u m stan c es."57 The p arad o x ical b e l i e f th a t the way to heaven tra v e rse s h e l l Is an e s s e n t i a l element o f G reene's j 35* g en iu s, transm uting s ig h t in to v isio n and giving him a kind o f m ystical a b i l i t y to u n v eil the " r e a l i ty " hidden beyond the world o f " s h e lls " th a t is known to the s e n s e s . L i k e P ro u st, Joyce, and Lowry, Oreene uses the language o f symbolism in the novel to p re se n t a new conception of r e a l i t y , more d i r e c tl y combining ord inary n a r ra tiv e w ith what Edmund Wilson has c a lle d the "symphonic s t r u c t u r e . "^9 Indeed, W ilson's comments about P r o u s t's A la Recherche de du Temps Perdu are a p p lic a b le to The Power and the G lory: i The s h i f t i n g Images o f the Sym bolist p o e t, with th e ir "m u ltip lie d a s s o c ia tio n s ," are here c h a r a c te r s , s i t u a t i o n s , p la c e s , vivid moments, obsessive em otions, re c u rre n t p a tte rn s o f behavior, (p. 132) Mexico provided him with p re c is e ly those symbols to "arouse the deep em otional s e l f , and the dynamic s e l f , beyond compr e h e n s i o n . Th e y are the Images of myth. I t is the mythic Q uality th a t so d is tin g u is h e s The Power | and the Qlory and s e ts i t a p a rt from G reene's e a r l i e r | works, e s ta b lis h in g him sec u rely among the Important j modern w rite rs who speak d ir e c tl y to the problems of | r e v i t a l i z i n g modern i n s t i t u t i o n s and rescu in g man from h is "se c u la r d e p r a v ity ,1 1 brin ging o rd er from chaos. In a p ercep tiv e e ssa y , "The .;ltch a t the C orner," Carolyn D. S c o tt ranks Oreene among w rite r s lik e Y eats, E l i o t , 355 Poundy Faulkner, and o th ers who have c reated th e ir own myths - - ones that re c o n s tru c t tr a d itio n and r i t u a l , yet 61 speak "with the immediacy o f the modern delemma. Commenting on h is preoccupation w ith p rim itiv e r i t u a l and myth-making, S c o tt adds; j The fa c t th at myth f a i l s to d is tin g u is h the I everyday a c t from symbolic performance encourages j the modern hope th a t a su p e rn a tu ra l power can permeate a l l th in g s. In th is r e a liz a tio n Oreene hopes fo r a coherent r i t u a l not Incompatible w ith modern i n s t i t u t i o n s , (p. 243) In c e r ta in a s p e c ts , the r e a l i t y o f the novel bears 1 a s t r i k i n g resemblance to the sh ell-w o rld o f The Lawless Roads. Item s, ex p erien ces, p la c e s , persons Oreene encountered in a c t u a l i t y turn up in The Power and the ! j Olory with a sto n ish in g frequency and v e rlslm u litu d e — ! although the l a t t e r acq u ires I n f i n i t e meaning, whereas j in The Lawless Roads they seem merely a conscious 'naming I of p a r t s . ' Thus, r a t s , b e e tle s , sh ark s, and v u ltu re s th a t plague the tr a v e le r in the jun gles and mountains of 1 southern Mexico become more than p e sts and p re d a to rs : j they suggest a whole universe o f death and decay and 1 d e s tru c tio n . The Images in the opening scene p a r a l l e l almost those used to describ e O reene's f i r s t impression j o f F rontera beside the G rija lv a R iver, In which "shark f fin s g lid ed lik e p eriscopes" and where "carcasses of old stranded steamers held up the b a n k s . B u t the " fa c ts " 356 become an em otional response, as a comparison o f the places in d ic a te s : I went fo r a walk on the shore; nothing to be seen but one dusty plaza with f r u i t - d r in k s t a l l s and a bust o f Obregon on a p i l l a r , two d e n t i s t s ' and a h a i r d r e s s e r 's . The v u ltu re s sq u atted on the ro o fs. I t was lik e a place beselged by scavengers — sharks In the r i v e r and v u ltu re s in the s t r e e t , (p. 1 3 0) Mr. Tench went out to look fo r h is e th e r c y lin d e r, out in to the b lazin g Mexican sun and the bleaching d u st. A few buzzards looked down from the ro o f with shabby In d iffe re n c e : he 1 w asn 't a c a rrio n y e t. A f a in t fe e lin g of r e b e llio n s t i r r e d in Mr. Tench's h e a r t, and he wrenched up a piece o f the road with 1 s p lin te r in g f in g e r - n a ils and tossed i t feeb ly up a t them. One o f them rose and : flapped across the town: over the tin y p la z a , ; over the bust o f an e x -p re s id e n t, e x -g e n e ra l, ] ex-human being, over the two s t a l l s which sold i m ineral w a te r, towards the r i v e r and the sea. I I t w ouldn't find anything th ere : the sharks looked a f t e r the c a rrio n on th a t s id e . (p. 3 ) I This corner o f the world is a ruined and abandoned garden: swamps and slu g g ish r iv e r s simmering in the h ea t; I p re c ip ito u s mountains, d e so la te and whipped by Icy winds i and r a in . In c o n tra s t to the g l i t t e r i n g worlds in space, ! th is seems lik e an "abandoned ship" r o l l i n g in space i blanketed in fog and s i n . ^3 I t s f a lle n in h a b ita n ts are s im ila r ly ruined and abandoned — except fo r the "In n o cen ts," the peasants and the c h ild re n . The moral co n d itio n o f the people Is expressed p h y sic a lly In gross 357 fle s h in e s s and r o t t i n g te e th . Bartbjgr attem pts to salvage and r e p a i r them are f u t i l e , as the e f f o r t s o f the d e n tis t make c le a r In the opening and c lo sin g scenes. Lacking proper equipment, he only I n f l i c t s f u r th e r pain and h is e f f o r t s a t camouflage - - the gold th a t gleans In the mouths o f the most co rru p t — serve to In d ic a te "flaws in the c h a r a c t e r . " ^ Like P o rte r in ! i "The Flowering Ju d a s," Oreene uses the gun to symbolize man's c h ie f weapon to a l t e r s o c ie ty fo r h is own ends: ■ the weapon o f g an gster and p o l i t i c a l reform er a lik e . And the swings In the c h ild r e n 's playground a t V lllaherm osa, ; which he noted In the tr a v e l book merely as being "too scorching hot to u se," become symbols o f d e s tru c tio n in the novel, where they stand " lik e gallows in the moony ! „ « i 6 5 I darkness. I ; i ; I j The b o ttle o f brandy th a t Greene had smuggled Into i i ! Tabasco becomes one o f the most s t r i k i n g symbols In the l book. C h r is tia n ity shares w ith o th e r r e lig io n s a reverence fo r wine, the medium th a t makes p o ssib le man's i m y stical reunion w ith God o r the divine source. I t Is an e s s e n t i a l element o f the Communion. According to some j s e c ts , wine is the u ltim ate symbol o f c r e a tio n - - made o f ! the grapes th a t sp rin g from the "vine" o f G o d .^ Wisely j used I t Is a source o f d iv in e In to x ic a tio n — a notion j 358 taken a good b i t f u rth e r by those re lig io u s and l i t e r a r y perso n s, C a b b alists and Sym bolists a l i k e , who valued i t as a v eh icle f o r tra n s p o rtin g the s e l f from the world of i llu s i o n to r e a l i t y by a n n ih ila tio n o f the conscious s e l f . F ather So-and-So's abuse o f liq u o r is a r e f le c tio n of h is s in f u l cond ition — although u ltim a te ly i t comes to serve a d iv in e end. ! i When he f i r s t appears in the P ro h ib itio n 1st s t a t e — another synonym fo r "Godless" s t a t e — he is c a rry in g In i h is b rie fc a s e a b o tt le o f brandy, which he shares with the Iso la te d and abandoned Mr. Tench. In much o f the I , book, h is d rin k in g re p re s e n ts Im perfect communion: Coral,j the c h ild a t the banana s t a t i o n , brings him beer a f t e r I she and her f a th e r had w ithheld a d rink from the 67 i lie u te n a n t. In h is dream, a few hours before he d ie s , j the p r i e s t sees her as he envisions him self a t a tab le \ before the high a l t a r ; she serves him wine — s ig n ify in g j th a t both o f them s h a l l e n te r heaven, (p. 199) Although j ' he denies to the mother o f h is ille g it i m a t e c h ild th a t there Is anything "sacred" in wine, (p. 7 3 )* he ris k s cap tu re and death in Vlllaherm osa to get a b o ttle from j the b o o tleg g er, the cousin o f the governor. And one o f ! | 1 the most d e sp a irin g moments on h is journey to God comes j when he is forced to watch, weeping, the b o o tleg g er, the 1 1 t 359 beggar, and the f a t C hief o f P olice with h is rev o lv er under h is bulging w aistco at d rin k in g his precious supply, (pp. 103-08) As the p r i e s t gains In g ra ce, h is d rinking comes to guide him toward ra th e r than drive him away from God. I t helps him to find the "courage" i to accompany h is b e tra y e r (p. 175)* end as God's grace | m anifests I t s e l f more s tro n g ly , even the lie u te n a n t breaks the law to bring him a fla s k o f brandy (p. 1 9 5) th at w ill enable him to con fron t his ex ecu tio n ers In the j | morning; during the n ig ht I t helps him achieve th at s t a t e of s e l f - s a c r l f I c e and h um ility th at Is a t the h e a rt of i the m y stical experience. J u s t as o b je c ts he encountered in his tra v e l through \ Mexico become symbols o f mythic s ig n if ic a n c e , so do 1 I i people and p lace s. V lllaherm osa, the c a p i t a l of ! t i | Tabasco — "a town where nothing is forgiven"^® - - Is the ' c e n te r of h o rro rs , w ith I t s v u ltu r e s , I t s gassy f r u i t d rin k s , pavements black w ith b e e tle s , the s t e r i l e schoolyard, the cem etery. The l a t t e r Is p a rad o x ically and b r i e f ly described In The Lawless Roads; The only place where you can fin d some symbol | o f your f a i t h Is In the cemetery up on a h i l l j above the town — a white c l a s s i c a l p o rtic o and the legend "SmSNCIO" In big black l e t t e r s , the b lin d w all round the corner where Garrldo shot h is p ris o n e r s , and Inside the enormous tombs o f aboveground b u r i a l , glasshouses fo r flowers and p o r t r a i t s and Images, c ro sse s and 360 w e e p i n g a n g e l s , t h e s e n s e o f a f a r b e t t e r a n d c l e a n e r c i t y t h a n t h a t o f t h e l i v i n g a t t h e b o t t o m o f t h e h i l l . ( p . 1 5 3 ) O t h e r p l a c e s s y m b o l i s e d e a t h a n d d e c a y : h i s r o o m I n t h e h o t e l i n V l l l a h e r m o s a , w i t h I t s t h r o b b i n g e l e c t r i c d y n a m o a n d w i d e s t a i r w a y c r a w l i n g w i t h b e e t l e s , I s t h e s e t t i n g f o r t h e d r i n k i n g b o u t o f t h e C h i e f o f P o l i c e , t h e b e g g a r , j a n d t h e g o v e r n o r ' s c o u s i n . I n t h a t r o o m , w h e r e t h e c h a r a c t e r s e m p t y t h e b o t t l e s o f b r a n d y a n d p r e c i o u s w i n e w h i l e t h e y b a b b l e s t u p i d l y a b o u t " m y s t e r y " a n d " s o u l " a n d S o u r c e s o f l i f e , " G r e e n e d r a n k h i s s m u g g l e d b r a n d y a n d " f e l t t h e e x c i t e m e n t o f t h i s s t a t e w h e r e t h e h u n t e d ; I p r i e s t h a d w o r k e d f o r s o m a n y y e a r s , h i d d e n i n t h e 6 9 ' s w a m p s a n d f o r e s t B . . . " S a l t o , w h e r e h e h a d s t a y e d I i I n C h i a p a s , b e c o m e s t h e a b a n d o n e d E d e n w h e r e t h e p r i e s t ' s 1 c h i l d l i v e s , w i t h I t s g a r b a g e d u m p a n d c a n t i n a a n d " a 70 t r a c k r u n n i n g o f f i n t o t h e h i l l s . " ' T h e g r o v e o f t a l l b l a c k c r o s s e s h e h a d s e e n I n t h e m o u n t a i n s b e c o m e s i n t h e n o v e l t h e c r u c i f i x e s t o w h i c h t h e I n d i a n w o m a n w i t h h e r 7 1 d e a d c h i l d l e a d t h e p r i e s t . T h e o n l y p l a c e I n t h e n o v e l t h a t s y m b o l i s e s a n y t h i n g b u t c o r r u p t i o n a n d d e a t h I s t h e f l n c a I n C h i a p a s , w h e r e G r e e n e h a d b e e n w e l c o m e d j b y a m i d d l e - a g e d b r o t h e r a n d s i s t e r w i t h " u n h u r r i e d a n d u n s u r p r i s e d k i n d l i n e s s . He w a s s o i m p r e s s e d w i t h t h a t e p i s o d e t h a t h e r e p r o d u c e s I t i n t h e n o v e l — t o t h e l a s t j 361 d e t a i l s u c h a s t h e e a r t h e n w a r e J a r o f f r e s h w a t e r , t h e w e e k s - o l d c o p i e s o f N e w Y o r k p a p e r s , t h e b l o s s o m i n g 73 t u l i p a n t r e e , a n d t h e s a n d y s t r e a m i n w h i c h t o b a t h e . J T h e p r i e s t c a n n o t s t a y ; f o r a l l I t s b e a u t y , i t I s a f a l s e E d e n ; a n d f o r a l l t h e i r k i n d n e s s , t h e L e h r s a r e " l u k e w a r m E v e n m o r e i m p r e s s i v e i s t h e s y m b o l i c n a t u r e o f t h e i | c h a r a c t e r s G r e e n e h a s c r e a t e d f r o m t h e p e r s o n s o f h i s t r a v e l s , b r e a t h i n g l i f e i n t o t h e m a n d r e a l i t y — a s h e d i d i n a m o s t l i t e r a l w a y b y t r a n s f o r m i n g O k l a h o m a J i m , a c o r p s e h e h a d s e e n i n a S a n A n t o n i o f r e a k s h o w , i n t o i t h e h u n t e d g a n g s t e r , J a m e s C a l v e r ; a n d i n a m o s t s p i r i t u a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t w a y a s h e s y n t h e s i s e d t h e m u r d e r e d F a t h e r F r o a n d t h e " w h i s k e y p r i e s t " h e h a d h e a r d a b o u t f r o m a n A m e r i c a n d e n t i s t i n t o t h e " m y s t i c r e b e l " w h o f i n d s h e a v e n t h r o u g h t h e a b y B S . I t i s i n t h e | r e - o r d e r l n g a n d r e d e f i n i n g o f p e o p l e t h a t h i s I m a g i n a t i o n ^ a c h i e v e s h i g h e s t e x p r e s s i o n . ^ | J u s t a s M e x i c o ' s t o p o g r a p h y p r o v i d e d h i m w i t h t h e I ; a b s o l u t e l y r i g h t s e t t i n g f o r h i s d r a m a o f s o u l - s t r u g g l e , s o t h e p e o p l e h e m e t t h e r e g a v e h i m n e e d e d c l u e s f o r h i s c h a r a c t e r s i n t h e s p i r i t u a l d r a m a w i t h o u t d i s t r a c t i n g a t t e n t i o n b y w a y o f t h e i r i n d i v i d u a l i t y a n d p a r t i c u l a r i t y T h e y e x i s t s i m u l t a n e o u s l y i n t h e " v i s i b l e " a n d i n t h e " s p i r i t u a l w o r l d , " a s G r e e n e i n s i s t e d t h e c h a r a c t e r s o f >3 362 7*5 t h e g r e a t t r a d i t i o n a l n o v e l i s t s d i d . 1'' G r e e n e r e s e r v e d h i s h i g h e s t p r a i s e f o r H e n r y J a m e s , C o n r a d , a n d M a u r l a c a m o n g m o d e r n n o v e l i s t s . H e a d m i r e d J a m e s b e c a u s e : " I t I s I n t h e f i n a l J u s t i c e o f h i s p i t y , t h e c o m p l e t e n e s s o f a n a n a l y s i s w h i c h e n a b l e d h i m t o p i t y t h e m o s t s h a b b y , t h e m o s t c o r r u p t o f h i s h u m a n a c t o r s . . . H e i s a s s o l i t a r y I i n t h e h i s t o r y o f t h e n o v e l a s S h a k e s p e a r e i n t h e h l B t o r y j i o f p o e t r y . " C o n r a d ' s g r e a t n e s s , h e p o i n t e d o u t , w a s h i s I i n s t i n c t i v e k n o w l e d g e f i t " t h e m e n t a l d e g r a d a t i o n t o w h i c h m a n ' s i n t e l l i g e n c e i s e x p o s e d o n t h e w a y t h r o u g h l i f e " a n d t h e " s c a t t e r e d p h r a s e s ( t h r o u g h w h i c h ) y o u g e t t h e j r ; I m e m o r i e s o f a c r e e d w o r k i n g l i k e p o e t r y t h r o u g h t h e i rjC I a g n o s t i c p r o s e . " ' ! i ! M o d e l s f o r t h e m i n o r c h a r a c t e r s a r e c l e a r l y i i r e c o g n i z a b l e i n T h e L a w l e s s R o a d s — t h o s e w h o e x i s t a l m o s t e n t i r e l y i n t h e v i s i b l e w o r l d . H e r r R . , t h e m i d d l e - a g e d G e r m a n - A m e r i c a n o n t h e C h i a p a s f l n c a . w i t h I h i s " d r y c y n i c a l L u t h e r a n h u m o u r " a n d " s t a n d a r d o f m o r a l i t y w h i c h n o b o d y h e r e p a i d e v e n l i p s e r v i c e t o , " I s c l e a r l y M r . L e h r . ^ H e a n d h i s s i s t e r - - d r a w n b o t h f r o m i H e r r R ' s s i s t e r a n d F r a R . , a N o r w e g i a n w o m a n G r e e n e h a d j m e t a t Y a j a l o n ( C a n d a l a r l a i n t h e n o v e l ) - - a r e I n d e e d j s o m u c h o f t h e v i s i b l e t h a t t h e y s e e m t o h a v e n o p a r t i n | t h e o t h e r w o r l d i n w h i c h s o m u c h o f t h e a c t i o n t a k e s p l a c e j 3 6 3 Fru R 's d au g h ters, "th in l i t t l e g i r l s o f fourteen and elev e n , s t a r t l l n g l y b e a u tif u l in a land where you grow weary o f black and o ily h a ir and brown sen tim en tal e y e s," suggested to him 1 3-year-old Coral Fellows: one of the most winning c h ild ren In modern f i c t i o n . She Is the p r i e s t s s p i r i t u a l daughter and his good angel — hid ing him a t the banana s ta tio n she manages fo r her c h ild is h p aren ts and a f t e r her death m in iste rin g to him i in h is v isio n o f heaven. Coral was conceived o f fe e lin g ! r a th e r than f a c t — the fe e lin g Oreene had for Fru R!s sm all daughter le a rn in g "The Charge o f the Light Brigade" I in th at a lie n land?® and perhaps the fe e lin g — almost o f ■ I I | fe a r — when he r e a liz e d th at the name o f the tire d l i t t l e ; I , j bootblack who polish ed his shoes In the h o te l might be ! I G r e e n e . B rig ld a , the p r i e s t 's s ix -y e a r-o ld daughter I with the world "in her h e a rt a lre a d y , lik e the sm all spot of decay In a f r u i t , " seems to owe something of her being j to S h irle y Temple (See note 2 ), something to the c h ild being co rrupted by her mother he met on the railw ay Journey (Roads. p. 2 5 6) , and something to Flora In The ! Turn o f the Screw .®0 ! j Two very Important c h a ra c te rs suggested by people he met were the Judas of the s to ry and Mr. Tench. The yellow-fanged m estizo who b etray s the p r i e s t was a c le r k | 364 Greene met on the r i v e r - t r i p to V illaherm osa, with h is plaguing fam ily, h is stomach tro u b le , his yearning to get out o f Mexico, and of Dr. F itz p a tr ic k : "a sm all b i t t e r e x ile d widower, caged in h is V icto rian s a la with the v u ltu re s ro u tin g on h is ro o f." (p. 1 5 0) No In d ic a tio n e x is ts th at Greene had a c tu a lly met | the three Important c h a ra c te rs : L uis, the Every Child i caught between heaven and h e l l , between the p r i e s t 's promise of sa lv a tio n and the li e u t e n a n t 's o f f e r o f \ e a r th ly w ell-b ein g ; the p r i e s t (C h rist) and the \ i lie u te n a n t (L u c ife r). Greene is fa sc in a te d by the I i ! ! b r ig h te s t member o f "the d e v i l 's p a r ty ," and lik en s him i i 1 i to o th e rs whom he co n sid ers have narrowly escaped i s a n c tity . In th a t ca te g o ry , he puts a number of i : | Communist le a d e rs . F id e l C a stro , whom he admires as a . " h e r e tic ," is described in one of G reene's essays as | "Pauline in h is labours and In h is escapes from s u ffe rin g | j and d e a t h . E v e n c lo s e r to the lie u te n a n t is Ho Chi 1 I | Mlnh, who he c a l l s "un homme pur comme L u c ife r." (p. 402) The Vietnamese le a d e r, w ith h is "kind rem orseless fa c e ," ' ' i ; appealed to the "schoolboy" in Greene. He, lik e the lie u te n a n t, I s a m ystic, but a mystic who has f a lle n from grace and who has chosen In stead of the kingdom of God the d e s e rt — the G race-less "vacant universe and a co olin g world" The lie u te n a n t was perhaps suggested by the Mexican airman S e rra b la and the f a n a tic a l Oarrldo Canabal — an e x tra o rd in a ry sy n th e sis o f the admired and lo ath ed . Greene wrote o f the audacious p i l o t and his c o lleag u e s: I think there were only two c la s se s o f men | I r e a lly lik e d in Mexico — the p r ie s ts and the f l y e r s . They were something new In Mexico* | with t h e i r p rid e In t h e i r h is to r y , t h e i r dash, i t h e i r a sc e tic ism ; non-drinkers and non-smokers i liv in g a mess l i f e together in the only clean w e ll-b u lld house in V illaherm osa, b r i l l i a n t f l y e r s , I f a l i t t l e le s s than e f f i c i e n t as | mechanics. . . A whole cen tu ry sep arated these | i men — tra in e d In the S t a t e s , w ith th e i r quick ' ■ b l r d !s-eye view o f Mexico, t h e i r s e l f - d is c i p l i n e | ' — from the o th e r in h a b ita n ts o f V illaherm osa, j from the c h ie f o f p o lic e , (pp. li*l-43) I Those q u a l i t ie s are the q u a l i t i e s o f the lie u te n a n t — so u n lik e the c h ie f and the r e s t of the p o lic e , of whom Oreene had w ritte n : "The p o lice were the lowest o f the I po p u latio n : you had to look fo r honesty on the faces of i > i ' I the men and women w aitin g to be fined o r blackguarded." j (p. 1^3) E q u ally , the lie u te n a n t was compounded o f the i ; governor o f the " is o la te d swampy p u r i t a n i c a l s t a te " of I / | Tabasco. O arrido Canabal, Oreene had w ritte n , had destroyed every church, organised a m i l i t i a of Red S h ir ts whom he led across the border Into C hiapas, hunting fo r a church o r a p r i e s t . Under h is in s tr u c tio n s : P riv a te houses were searched fo r re lig io u s emblems, and priso n was the p en alty fo r 366 p o ssessin g them. A young man 1 met in Mexico C ity — a fam ily frie n d o f G a rrid o 's - - was imprisoned three days fo r wearing a cro ss under h is s h i r t ; the d i c t a t o r was in c o rr u p tib le . A J o u r n a lis t on h is way to photograph Tabasoo was shot dead in Mexico C ity a ir p o r t before he took h is s e a t. (p. 1 2 9) In sh arp est c o n tra s t is that corrup ted hero* Father So-and-So. He was fashioned of clues provided from a f i number o f sources* includ in g the s to ry Greene had been | told before h is a r r i v a l in Tabasco — the only p r i e s t | l e f t in the s ta te * who had survived ten years in the ; f o r e s ts and swamps and whose few l e t t e r s "recorded an j awful sense of Impotence - - to liv e In constant danger and | yet be able to do so l i t t l e * I t hardly seemed worth the 1 L h o rro r ," (p. 129) Greene*s view o f the mystery o f God»s [ j i grace needed more than those q u a l i t ie s fo r his hero-saint*j so he added fe a tu re s o f "the d isre p u ta b le and kindly \ Padre Rey," Dr. F i t z p a t r i c k 's f a th e r had known In Panama i i (p. 147) and the whisky p r i e s t in Chiapas* who had drunkenly named one o f Dr. F i t z p a t r i c k 's sons B r l g l t t a " : He was l i t t l e loss* poor man* a kind of Padre Rey: but who can Judge what te r r o r and hardship and is o la tio n may have excused him in the eyes o f God?" (p. 150) Father Pro* the young p r i e s t who had been shot on a charge of treason in the c a p it a l a f t e r a seminary was raided and a photo o f the wanted man had been d is trib u te d * is a ls o 367 suggested. P r in c ip a lly , however, he served as model fo r the d id a c tic t r e a t i s e s the mother o f Luis read to her c h ild ren — regarded contemptuously by Luis and Greene a l i k e . In an a r t i c l e on "The S tru c tu re of The Power and the G lory» 1 1 Karl P atten comments on the e ffe c tiv e n e s s o f the I n te r r e la te d s tr u c tu r e s : s p a t i a l and temporal - - w ith the i ! novel developing lo o sely In widening stro k es while i t develops tem porally In the logic o f ca u sality .® ^ P atten fe e ls th a t more than any o f Greene!s o th er novels, The | | Power and the Glory Is "a book of symbolic I d e n t i f t e a t ions}' I (p. 311) According to h is view, the p a tte rn 1b a r a d ic a l i I i one since a l l o f the c h a ra c te rs are sym bolically r e la te d : i to the p r i e s t as the spokes of a wheel are r e la te d to the j j hub. I t is a lso a " ra d ia n t" p a tt e r n , he sa y s, since i t | goes beyond the o r ig in a l notion o f the wheel "to suggest I the re lig io u s theme o f the book and the c e n tr a l symbolic l in k between the l i f e of the whisky p r i e s t and the l i f e i i of C h r is t." (p. 311) This is an i n t e r e s t in g concept and an ac cu rate one, as f a r as i t goes. The ch ase, which gives such drama and : suspense to the novel Is h eig h ten ed , as P atten suggests by the device o f " p a r a lle l montage" — so th a t while the read er is given a t one moment the p ic tu re of the p r i e s t 368 fle e in g from the l ie u te n a n t, he is given almost sim ultaneously the p ic tu re o f the p r i e s t pursued by God. (p. 315) In c e rta in ep iso d es, the two a c tio n s come to g eth er: substance and shadow fuse ftlth In c red ib le v iv id n ess. In P art One, the p lig h t o f the whisky p r i e s t Is shown. About to escape the purgatory o f Tabasco, he Is summoned by a c h ild m y sterio u sly , while sh arin g his brandy with the d e n t i s t , to a tte n d a dying woman. He follows the boy in to the Jungle — h a tin g him, but unable to deny h is o b lig a tio n to "what he c a r r i e d . " ® 5 As he exp lains th at o b lig a tio n d ir e c tly to Coral Fellow s, who t e l l s him th at he could save him self from the h orrors o f having to voyage through the underworld by renouncing h is f a i t h : " I t ' s im possible. T herefs no way. I'm a p r i e s t . I t ' s out of my power." (p. 35) Only h in ts are d e t a il s o f d e n t i s t s ' d r i l l s , houses s lip p in g in to the mud, c a n tin a s , the banana s ta t i o n . But as each c h a ra c te r is Introduced, the o th e r worlds In which he moves are suggested. The p r i e s t , fo r example, is reminded by the sm ell of dampness as he s e ts o f f in to the Jungle, th a t " th is p a rt of the world had never been dried In the flame when the world was sen t spinning o f f in to sp ace." (p. 15) The l i e u te n a n t, brooding about the 369 cap tu re of the gangster and the p r i e s t f experiences in a m ystical fashion not God* but vacancy; "a complete c e r ta in ty in the e x isten ce o f a dying, cooling w orld, o f human beings who had evolved from animals for no purpose a t a l l . " (p. 20) The f a th e r of young Luis knows "the e x ten t of th e i r abandonment." (p. 2 3 ) Padre Jo se , an "obscene p ic tu re " with his J a l l e r - w i f e , r e a l is e s th a t "the whole globe was blanketed w ith h is own s i n ." (p. 24) C o ra l1s p arents are "c a rrie d lik e c h ild re n In a coach through the huge spaces without any knowledge of th e ir ! i j d e s tin a tio n ." (p. 34) A ll of them are w aitin g , t e r r i f i e d j ! | by the r e a l death , knowing th at they have been d eserted j In d e a th 's kingdom. i In the Becond p a rt of the book, as the p r i e s t i journeys through the deepest p a rt of the abyss, the | shadows grow d ark er. Time seems a lte r e d so th a t the j three p rin c ip a l episodes seem to be happening In slow j j motion: the p r i e s t ' s escape from h is pursuers in the i v illa g e where h is I lle g itim a te c h ild l iv e s ; his v i s i t to i the b o o tle g g e r's room, where the c h ie f o f p o lice and the | governor's cousin drink the brandy and wine he has | bought; his imprisonment. The d ark est episode, p a ra d o x ic a lly , Is a lso the beginning of b rig h tn ess since the e a rth ly sin n e rs In the prison o f f e r evidence of 370 s p i r i t u a l g o o d n e s s b y r e f u s i n g t o b e t r a y h i m . M o l o n g e r b l i n d e d b y t h e l i g h t o f t h e w o r l d o f u n r e a l i t y , h e s e e s t h a t t h e b e s t o f t h e p r i s o n e r s — t h e p i o u s w o m a n — I s a l s o t h e w o r s t I n t h e s i g h t o f G o d ; h e a l s o s e e s t h e g o o d n e s s i n t h e l i e u t e n a n t , t h e f a l l e n a n g e l . The l i e u t e n a n t 's goodness is an im portant p a rt of the paradox. Motivated by the beBt in te n tio n s — he wants only to e lim in a te from childhood "everything which had made him m iserable, a l l th a t was poor, s u p e r s t i t i o u s , and co rru p t" — he w ill begin the world anew, a t whatever e v i l c o s t. t H e w a s q u i t e p r e p a r e d t o m a k e a m a s s a c r e f o r t h e i r s a k e s - - f i r s t t h e C h u r c h a n d t h e n t h e f o r e i g n e r a n d t h e n t h e p o l i t i c i a n — e v e n h i s o w n c h i e f w o u l d o n e d a y h a v e t o g o . ( p . 5 2 ) i j F a r t T h r e e , I n w h i c h t h e p r i e s t e s c a p e s t h e s w a m p s | a n d J u n g l e s o f t h e g o d l e s s s t a t e , i s c o n c e r n e d w i t h h i s ! u p w a r d a s c e n t t o t h e s u b u r b s o f h e a v e n . I n i t , t w o e p i s o d e s — o n e l i g h t , o n e d a r k — s u g g e s t t h e f i n a l o u t c o m e : t h e e a r t h l y p a r a d i s e o f t h e L e h r ' s f i n c a a n d t h e r e a p p e a r a n c e o f t h e f a n g e d m e s t i z o w h o g u i d e s h i m j I j d o w n t o w a r d t h e J u n g l e o n t h e p r e t e x t t h a t t h e d y i n g , g a n g s t e r h a s a s k e d f o r t h e l a s t s a c r a m e n t . T h e m o s t p o w e r f u l p a s s a g e s o c c u r a f t e r h i s c a p t u r e , w h e n t h e l i e u t e n a n t ' s n a r r o w e s c a p e f r o m s a n c t i t y i s u s e d a g a i n t o d r a m a t i s e t h e p a r a d o x i c a l n a t u r e o f G o d ' s g r a c e . T h e 371 i n c o r r u p t i b l e l i e u t e n a n t v i o l a t e s t h e l a w t o b r i n g h i m b r a n d y a n d t o t r y t o p e r s u a d e P a d r e J o s e t o h e a r h i s c o n f e s s i o n , a n d t h e c o n f u s e d a n d t e r r i f i e d p r i e s t g o e s t o h i s d e a t h — k n o w i n g t h a t " a t t h e e n d t h e r e w a s o n l y o n e t h i n g t h a t c o u n t e d - - t o b e a s a i n t . " ( p . 2 0 0 ) P a r t P o u r i s t h e r e t u r n t o M e t r o l a n d . I t s t i l l c o n t a i n s i t s a b a n d o n e d I n h a b i t a n t s : t h e p o l i c e c h i e f , M r . T e n c h * t h e F e l l o w s e s . B u t t h e f o g a n d t h e d a r k n e s s h a v e l i f t e d . L u i s * t h e E v e r y m a n - C h i l d * i n d i c a t e s t h e " m i r a c l e " t h a t h a s t r a n s f o r m e d t h e w o r l d — s p i t t i n g o n | t h e l i e u t e n a n t ' s r e v o l v e r - b u t t a n d o p e n i n g t h e d o o r t o j | t h e n a m e l e s s p r i e s t w h o h a s c o m e t o b e g i n a g a i n t h e | I j 1 c y c l e o f d e a t h a n d r e s u r r e c t i o n . T h e d u a l l s t l c q u a l i t y o f t h e s t r u c t u r e * w h i c h I i : c o n s i s t s o f b o t h t e m p o r a l a c t i o n a n d s p a t i a l p a t t e r n * i d i s t i n g u i s h e s e v e r y o t h e r a s p e c t o f t h e b o o k : j c h a r a c t e r i z a t i o n * t o n e * d e t a i l * f o c u s * p o i n t o f v i e w * I a n d e v e n l a n g u a g e — w h i c h r a n g e s f r o m t h e l e v e l o f j s l a n g y s e c u l a r t o f o r m a l p r a y e r . T h e c h a r a c t e r s e x i s t i n t i m e * r e l a t e d t o t h e h u n t e d 9 I p r i e s t i n t h e p a t t e r n o f t e m p o r a l a c t i o n ; t h e y a l s o e x i s t I n e t e r n i t y * f l e e i n g w i t h h i m f r o m t h e " H o u n d o f H e a v e n . " G r e e n e * h i m s e l f * h a s s a i d o f t h e p e o p l e i n h i s b o o k s : T h e s e c h a r a c t e r s a r e n o t m y c r e a t i o n * b u t G o d ' s . T h e y h a v e a n e t e r n a l d e s t i n y . T h e y a r e n o t 372 m e r e l y p l a y i n g a p a r t f o r t h e r e a d e r ' s a m u s e m e n t . T h e y a r e s o u l s w h o m C h r i s t d i e d t o s a v e . 8 6 W h i l e t h i s m a y b e s o m e w h a t e x a g g e r a t e d * i n T h e P o w e r a n d t h e G l o r y a t l e a s t * G r e e n e h a s r e m a r k a b l y f u s e d t h e n a t u r a l i s t i c w i t h t h e s u p e r n a t u r a l . I t I s a l m o s t a s I f h e s k e t c h e d a D a u m i e r - l l f c e p o r t r a i t o f h i s c h a r a c t e r s o n a n X - r a y p l a t e t h a t r e v e a l s n o t t h e p h y s i o l o g i c a l * b u t a l l o f t h e m o r a l a n d s p i r i t u a l I l l s o f t h e s u b j e c t . L i k e ! L a w r e n c e a n d L o w r y , h e I s m u c h l e s s c o n c e r n e d w i t h t h e e g o o f h i s c h a r a c t e r s t h a n t h e p s y c h e . T h u s , w e s e e m t h e m I m a g e d w i t h t h e i r w a r t s , t h e i r w r i n k l e s * t h e i r g r o t e s q u e n e s s e s a s t h e i r l i v e s t o u c h t h a t o f t h e s e e d y ! l i t t l e F a t h e r S o - a n d - S o . B u t w e a l s o s e e t h e m a s s t a t e s j i o f s p i r i t u a l b e i n g , a s t h e y r e l a t e t o * c o m m u n e w i t h * o r l | r e j e c t t h e m e s s e n g e r o f G o d ' s g r a c e . | T h e m o s t d e t a i l e d , n a t u r a l i s t i c p o r t r a i t s a r e t h o s e o f t h e l u k e w a r m c h a r a c t e r s : t h e h o l l o w m e n a n d w o m e n w h o I _ _ _ _ _ _ h a v e c u t t h e m s e l v e s o f f f r o m " h o m e ” a n d w h o l i v e a b a n d o n e d a n d w i t h o u t h o p e o r l o v e I n t h e l o v e l e s s * a b a n d o n e d i n t h o v e s t i b u l e o f h e l l . T h e t w o m o s t s t r i k i n g " l u k e w a r m s " a r e I M r . T e n c h a n d M r s . F e l l o w s . T h e e x i l e d E n g l i s h d e n t i s t * f r e t t i n g a b o u t t h e p e s o * I s t h e m o r e s y m p a t h e t i c o f t h e t w o . W i t h o u t l o v e o f G o d o r m a n * h e c a n n o t r e m e m b e r h i s c h i l d r e n — o n l y a w a t e r i n g - c a n h e b o u g h t f o r t h e m y e a r s 373 ago; he cannot remember h is wife — only the h ats she wore, Yet Mr. Tench Is touched b r i e f ly by the divine messenger w ith whom he had shared an Im perfect communion in th.e opening scene. While he watches from the p o lic e c h i e f 's o f f ic e the s o ld ie r s shooting the p r i e s t , he f e e ls " r a th e r sick " and shuts his eyes. (p. 208) Then, as h is eyes go back to the mound o f gold on the g la ss d is h , he is overwhelmed again with lo n e lin e ss and experiences u ltim a te d e s e rtio n . j A more a p p a llin g symbol of lo v elessn ess and s p i r i t u a l I deadness 1b C o ra l's mother: the th in , sca red , Is o la te d hypochondriac who so fe a rs death th at she has re je c te d j l i f e . In le s s than a s in g le paragraph, Qreene cap tu res , her as memorably as Faulkner c re a te s her co u n te rp a rt — J ! the h o rrif y in g Mrs. Corapson o f The Sound and the Fury. Seeking reassurance fo r her and fo r him self on his re tu rn | i to the s t a t i o n , C aptain Fellows t e l l s her with fa ls e ch e erin ess th a t I t is "not a bad l i f e . " He fe e ls h er s t i f f e n ; the word l i f e was taboo: . . . I t reminded you o f death. She turned her face away from him towards the w all and then h o p elessly back again — the phrase "turn to the w all" was taboo too. She lay p a n ic - s tr ic k e n , while the boundaries of her fe a r widened and widened to Include every r e la tio n s h ip and the whole world of inanimate th in g s: i t was lik e an In fe c tio n . You could look a t nothing fo r long without becoming aware th a t I t , too, c a r r ie d a germ . . . the word "sheet" even. She threw the 37* s h e e t o f f h e r e n d s a i d : " I t ' s s o h o t , I t ' s s o h o t . " T h e u s u a l l y h a p p y a n d t h e a l w a y s u n h a p p y o n e w a t c h e d t h e n i g h t t h i c k e n f r o m t h e b e d w i t h d i s t r u s t . T h e y w e r e c o m p a n i o n s c u t o f f f r o m a l l t h e w o r l d : t h e r e w a s n o m e a n i n g a n y w h e r e o u t s i d e t h e i r o w n h e a r t s : t h e y w e r e c a r r i e d l i k e c h i l d r e n I n a c o a c h t h r o u g h t h e h u g e s p a c e s w i t h o u t a n y k n o w l e d g e o f t h e i r d e s t i n a t i o n , ( p p . 3 3 - 3 * ) O n l y t h e f a i n t e s t k i n d o f p o r t r a i t o f s o m e o f t h e ! c h a r a c t e r s I s l i n e d , a s a p p r o p r i a t e i n t h e s p i r i t u a l | a l l e g o r y . T h e f r a g i l e l i t t l e C o r a l , w i t h h e r b l o n d i i b r a i d s a n d h e r i n d o m i t a b l e a i r , i s g o o d n e s s . H a v i n g i a c c e p t e d a n d s h i e l d e d t h e m e s s e n g e r o f C o d , s h e h a s b e e n j b l e s s e d w i t h g r a c e . A l t h o u g h o n l y s u g g e s t i o n s a r e g i v e n a b o u t h e r e a r t h l y f a t e — s h e , t o o , I s a v i c t i m o f t h e | I A m e r i c a n g a n g s t e r — h e r e t e r n a l d e s t i n y I s r e v e a l e d I n j ; i t h e d r e a m o f t h e p r i e s t b e f o r e h i s e x e c u t i o n ; I n t h a t , s h e f i l l s h i s g l a s s w i t h s a c r e d w i n e . L u i s , t h e y o u n g b o y , I s a l s o s k e t c h e d I n m e a g e r d e t a i l , a l t h o u g h t h e | X - r a y o f h i s s p i r i t I s p l a i n l y s h o w n . O p p o s e d t o t h e t w o c h i l d r e n o f l i g h t I s t h e p r i e s t ' s s m a l l d a u g h t e r , B r l g l d a . D e s c r i b i n g h e r a s s h e s a t b y t h e r u b b i s h h e a p , s m i l i n g " e n t i c i n g l y " a t h e r f a t h e r , O r e e n e s a y s , e x p l i c l t y r e v e a l i n g h i s X - r a y , e y e - o f - O o d t e c h n i q u e : t " T h e w o r l d w a s I n h e r h e a r t a l r e a d y , l i k e t h e s m a l l s p o t o f d e c a y I n a f r u i t . " ( p . 7 6 ) T h e c l n e m a g r a p h i c t e c h n i q u e s O r e e n e e m p l o y s a l s o 375 enhances the d u a l l s t l c q u a lity of focus. He is very conclous In s e t t i n g the scene and p re se n tin g the a c tio n of such devices as "long shots" and "close ups." In The Lawless Roads, fo r example, he says In d e sc rib in g V lllaherm osa: I f I had moved a camera a l l around the edge of | the l i t t l e plaza In a panning shot I t would have recorded a l l the l i f e there was In the c a p i t a l c i t y - - a d e n t i s t 's with a f l o o d l i t c h a ir of i to r tu r e ; the p ub lic J a i l , an old w h lte -p llla re d ! o n e -sto ry house which must have dated back to the C onquistadors, where a s o ld ie r s a t w ith a r i f l e a t the door and a few dark faces pressed | ! a g a in st the bars; a Commercial Academy the siz e j of a v illa g e s to r e ; the S e c r e t a r i a t ; the T reasury, ! a f l o r i d o f f i c i a l b u ild in g with long step s i lead in g down to the p laza; the Syndicate o f j I Workers and P easan ts; the Casa de A g ra rls ta s ; ! j a few p riv a te houses with t a l l unshuttered j windows guarded with iron barB through which j one saw old la d le s on V icto rian rocking c h a irs swinging back and fo rth among the l i t t l e s ta tu e s and family photographs, (pp. 137- 3 8) This technique Is tra n s fe rre d with g re a te r s k i l l and I i ; ! meaning to The Power and the G lory, In which the c o n tra s t ; a l t e r a ti o n between panoramic recording and sudden c lo s e - ; ups heighten the dram atic e f f e c t . For example, in a i [ sin g le paragraph he d escrib es f i r s t the v illa g e to which I the p r i e s t re tu rn s to see B rlglda — two dozen huts around a dusty p laza; then, the camera suddenly zooms In fo r a clo se-u p o f M arla's fa ce, watching him pick him self up a f t e r he f a l l s to the ground, (pp. 56-57) In the execution Beene, In a s in g le paragraph, Greene has 376 Mr. Tench watch the shooting from the window p f the c h i e f s o f f i c e . Suddenly, the focus s h i f t s to the p r i e s t , try in g to say something; back to Mr. Tench, fe e lin g the v ibratio ns o f the sho t; then back to the prison courty ard again — with two knock-kneed men approaching the "heap beside the w a ll." (p. 298) T h e r a p i d a l t e r a t i o n i n f o c u s g i v e s a h e i g h t e n e d s e n s e o f m o v e m e n t a n d d r a m a t o t h e n o v e l , o n e t h a t i s e n h a n c e d b y t h e p l a y o f l i g h t a n d s h a d e . W h e n t h e j e m p h a s i s I s o n t h e t e m p o r a l a c t i o n , t h e s c e n e s a r e f u s u a l l y b r i g h t l y l i g h t e d : t h e o p e n i n g s c e n e s , t h e c a p t u r e , t h e e x e c u t i o n . W h e n t h e e m p h a s i s i s o n t h e | s p a t i a l p a t t e r n , G r e e n e w o r k s i n s h a d o w o r e v e n — a s i n t h e c a s e o f t h e p r i s o n s c e n e — t o t a l d a r k n e s s . ' I T h e p o i n t o f v i e w i s a l s o c u r i o u s l y — a n d j e f f e c t i v e l y — d u a l i s t i c . S o m e t i m e s o m n i s c i e n t , s o m e t i m e s , o b j e c t i v e , G r e e n e n e v e r e n t i r e l y s u r r e n d e r s t h e v a n t a g e j p o i n t t o a p a r t i c u l a r c h a r a c t e r . E v e n w h e n t h e r e a d e r i s m o s t d i r e c t l y t a k e n i n t o t h e m i n d o f o n e o f t h e c h a r a c te r s , the shadowy presence o f the author is a ls o f e l t — a d e v i c e t h a t D o m l c k P . C o n s o l o h a s p o i n t e d o u t w h i c h h a s g r e a t v a l u e i n a l l o w i n g t h e w r i t e r t o m a k e 87 s m o o t h t r a n s i t i o n s . C o n s o l o n o t e s t h a t i n c o n t r a s t t o H e n r y J a m e s ' s i d e a o f t h e " p u r e n o v e l , " G r e e n e i n s i s t s 377 on the a u th o r's p re ro g ativ e to express h is views in order to heighten e f f e c t s . He is "always In charge and wants you to know I t . " (p. 64) The seeming s im p lic ity o f h is w ritin g — which often appears to a l t e r n a te between the d e te c tiv e sto ry and the m orality — is disarm ing and accounts in p a r t fo r the f a ilu r e o f a number of l i t e r a r y c r i t i c s to accord him f u l l r e c o g n itio n .89 A c tu a lly , as A l l o tt and P a rris have ! i : s a id , G reene's novels deserve to be read with "poetic" 89 a t t e n t i o n . The Power and the Glory more than any of | his o th e r works m erits th a t kind o f a t te n t i o n , I th in k , j I t | because of i t s te c h n ic a l b r i l l i a n c e . In i t , h is m ultiple j I i p o in ts o f view a re fla w le ssly in te g ra te d ; his c h a r a c te r is a tio n Is convincing; hiB symbolism springs n a tu ra lly from theme, a c tio n , s e t t i n g , and c h a ra c te r. | In i t , the expression of h is v isio n achieves g re at I h e ig h ts , w ith language covering the f u l l range. Greene possesses what has been c a lle d a "baroque" < 30 s e n s i b i l i t y ^ - - an apt word to d escribe h is s ty le as w ell as h is view of the world. I t is a lso a word th a t is i em inently ap p ro p ria te to apply to the Mexican novel | i since I t was in Mexico th a t the " J e s u it s ty le " o f a r c h ite c tu r e reached f u l l e s t ex p ressio n . C haracterized by i t s re lig io u s o r i e n ta t i o n , i t s e f f o r t to extend the 378 world through expressive form as u n iv e rsa l ex p e rien ce, I t s highly I n d iv id u a lis tic approach to a r t i s t r y , i t s preoccupation with lig h t and shade, i t is o ften mannered and sometimes grotesque in i t s Ju x ta p o sitio n o f various elem ents. At I t s h ig h e s t, i t marvelously sy n th e sise s i the s p i r i t u a l and the m a te ria l. The baroque c a s t o f mind is c le a r ly evidenced by I G reene's metaphoric a s s o c ia tio n s . He views the tr o p ic a l sh o re lin e as being “burled as deeply In darkness as any mummy In a tomb" (p. 14); the g an gster s tre tc h e d out In | I I death has "the prudish a t t i t u d e o f a female s ta tu e " j j ; (p. 149)j swings In the playground loom "lik e gallows" j i i (p. 199); the te e th o f the pious woman In the prison are | " lik e tombs" (p. 125); the Indians fle e in g from the I sickness they c a r r ie d with them are described as i i ! ■ "sometimes . . . panicky lik e f l i e s a g a in st a pane." J i (p. l4 l) The lumps o f sugar the p r i e s t and the Indian j woman fin d , t h e i r only food, are "the s iz e of a baby's s k u l l ." (p. 144) The co n fe ssio n a l in Chiapas is "a l i t t l e s tu ffy wooden boxllke c o ffin in which men bury th e ir uncleanness w ith t h e ir p r i e s t . " (p. 1 6 3) The p r i e s t becomes aware th a t : "Evil ran lik e m alaria In his v e in s ." (p. 1 6 7) The a s s o c ia tio n s are not only s t a r t l i n g in them selves, but gain shock value fre q u e n tly from the 379 s itu a tio n in which they are used. Mary McCarthy has ob jected to what she c a ll s G reene's use o f words with "churchly c o n n o ta tio n s,91 chid ing him for seeking to awaken in the re ad er re lig io u s fe e lin g s th at are not J u s t i f i e d by the a c tio n of the novel. However, Oreene1s primary purpose, i t seems, is to reawaken r e lig io u s fe e lin g s in the re a d e r, to force acknowledgement o f the correspondence between the m a te ria l and the s p i r i t u a l " f a c t . ” The co n notatlve words j i th at he uses to do th a t , the metaphoric a s s o c ia tio n of ' Ideas are p a r ti c u l a r ly ap t in The Power and the G lory, j which 1$ d i r e c tl y concerned with man's r e la tio n s h ip w ith God in the most Intim ate sense: the night Journey o f the ! soul to what r e lig io u s m ystics have c a lle d "Divine Union."; In d e sc rib in g t h a t , G reene's s ty le reached a new ? m a tu rity , Ju st as his v isio n moved from narrow p a r t i sanship — c h a r a c t e r i s t i c even o f a book so c lo se ly asso c ia te d w ith the novel as The Lawless Roads. 92 One o f the most n otable devices is the frequency of what John A tkins has c a lle d "the normal metaphor . . . turned ! 93 Inside o u t." In stead o f comparing two c o n c re te s , an i a b s tr a c t Is compared with a co n c rete. Some o f the s lm llle s are s tr i k i n g In them selves. For example, when the h a rrie d and hunted p r i e s t comes upon the q u iet 380 o rd e rly fln c a owned by the L ehrs, he f e e ls th a t "the whole scene was lik e peace." (p. 1 5 3) In the episode In which the p r i e s t f a l l s Into h is old ways, he debates the p ric e o f the brandy he Is about to buy with baptism al fees c o lle c te d from the Impoverished v illa g e r s with a fa t sto rek e ep er with "th ree commercial c h in s ." Hating h im self, "He drank the brandy down lik e damnation." (p. l 6 l ) Even more s t r i k i n g l y , lik e the lmage-symbols j they emphasize the underlying v isio n o f man, obsessed and ! i I I j 1 driven In a h e l l i s h u n iv erse , imprisoned in the s in f u l s e l f . Although Greene re je c te d Mexico a f t e r h is I n i t i a l and i n i t i a t o r y ex p erien ce, th ere Is l i t t l e question about ; the ro le i t played In his development as an a r t i s t . I t : gave him the models, the m a te ria ls , and the methods fo r 1 : ex p ressin g his obsessive themes: b e tr a y a l, escape; a yearning fo r peace and death and re le a s e from the g race- j le s s world th a t was once a g ra c e fu l garden; a tenderness | for c h ild re n as those b r i e f ly b e t t e r beings d estin ed fo r j degradation and h o rro r; the overwhelming Importance o f | r e lig io n . Mexico gave him shadows and lig h t o f new | I n te n s ity and depth, symbols fo r the meanings th a t he had always sensed although had not been able to f u lly e x p re s s . 381 N O T E S C H A P T E R V 1. A. A. D eV itls, Graham Oreene (New York: Twayne P u b lis h e rs , I n c ., 190**) says: "Greene Is thought toy ! mamy to be one o f the g re a te s t w rite rs o f our j language and, perhaps, our f in e s t liv in g n o v e l i s t . ” I (p. 71) The Power and the Glory e s ta b lis h e d him. R. ’/. B. Lewis p o in ts out In the In tro d u c tio n to Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory; Text, Background. antnHTrltlclsm (ed. R. vr. B. Lewis and P e te r J , Conn) th at i t was not u n t i l the 1959s th at the book became e s ta b lis h e d as Greene!s "most com pelling work o f f i c t io n and as one of the f in e s t E r g lish -larg u ag e novels o f I ts g e n e ra tio n ." (New York: The Viking P re s s , 1970), p. v i l l . 2. Greene was a sharp c r i t i c . As John Atkins has pointed o u t, the "Hollywood film moguls" could sc a rc e ly have ; enjoyed h is a tta c k s : "They re se n t a d u lt c r it i c i s m at the best of tim es, but the combination o f f e r o c ity and malice that Greene managed to pack In to h is n o tices must have made them w rith e ," What made them decide to s t r i k e , Atkins say s, was a review of wee W illie winkle th a t appeared In Night and Day, November 2b, 1937, in which Greene suggested that S h irle y Temple!s p o p u la rity "seems to r e s t on a coquetry q u ite as mature as Miss C o lb e rt’s and on a n o d d l y p r e c o c i o u s b o d y as v o l u p t u o u s in g r e y f l a n n e l t r o u s e r s a s M i s s D i e t r i c h ’ s . " " T h e C u r s e o f t h e F i l m , " G r a h a m G r e e n e , S o m e C r i t i c a l C o n s i d e r a t i o n s , e d . R o b e r t 0 . E v a n s ( U n i v e r s i t y o f K e n t u c k y P r e s s , 1963), p . 217. ; Greene l a t e r wrote o f the episode th at when he had retu rn ed to Mexico C ity from h is t r ip to Tabasco and 1 C hiapas, "I found a le jtte r from my p u b lish e r o ffe rin g to send me money I f I thought i t expedient to sta y awhile longer In Mexico; the Lord Chief J u s tic e had taken a severe view o f the case and there was Borne danger th at I might be a r re s te d on my re tu r n . But by the time I had received my mail I had taken such ! a d i s t a s t e to Mexico th at even an E nglish prison promised r e l i e f . " In tro d u c tio n , The Power and the Glory: Taxt, Background, and c r i t i c i s m , p. 1 . 382 (A ctually I t was not ao sev e re. Miss Temple and her stu d io were awarded $9,800. There the m atter ended.) i 3* Carolyn D. S c o tt, "The Witch a t the C orner," Graham Greene, Some C r i t i c a l C o n sid eratio n s, p. 240. ' i 4. Journey w ithout Maps; A T rave l Book (London: William rfeInema nn, 193&)$ P• 1$. I 5. Prologue to The Lawless Roads (London: Eyre & Spottlsw oode, 1 9 5 0), p. 4. 6. "The Lost Childhood," C ollected Essays (New York: The Viking P re s s , 1 9 8 9)# p. 17. 7. He says th at In V lscor.tl, fo r example, "with his beauty, his p a tie n c e , and h is genius fo r e v i l , " he recognised young C a rte r, who "exercised te r r o r from a d istan ce lik e a snowcloud over the young f i e l d s . " I b i d . p. 17. 8. Laurence L erner, "Graham Greene," The Power a n d the Glory: Text, B ckground, and C ritic is m , p. 39H. 9. Graham Greene, "The Greenes of Berkham sted," E s q u ire , 7 6 , (September, 1971), p. 127. 10. This essay , not re p rin te d lr the ampler c o lle c tio n re fe rre d to e a r l i e r , appears In The Lost Childhood and Other Essays (New York: The Viking P ress, 19^2)* pp. Wore re c e n tly , he d isc u sse s I t In A Sort o f L ife (New York: Simon and S c h u ste r, 197T), p p . 1 T V -3 T .- 11. School D uplications — The Berkhamstedlan. the 1 Oxford Outlook, Oxford c h r o n ic le , and o th ers — j c a rrie d many o f h is f i r s t s t o r i e s and poems. In 1921# the year before he went up to B a l l l o l , a London newspaper published "The Tick o f the Clock, a Legend," and The Weekly W estm inster, a n a tio n a l p e r io d ic a l, published s e v e ra l o¥ h is poems. See N ell Brennan, "B ibliography," Graham Greene. Some C r i t i c a l C o n sid eratio n s, pp. 2b2-(>3. A fte r a few In c id e n ta l J o t s , f i r s t w ith a tobacco company and, fo r a few weeks as a tu to r to a sm all boy, he took ! a payless post In 1925 with the No11Ingham Jo u rn al and a year l a t e r became a member o f the e d i t o r i a l s t a f f of the London Times. 383 | 12. {Oxford, Black**11, 1925) j In one poem, "The Banbury Road, 12 p .m .," he d escribes two men whose black coats looking lik e cloaks as they stand h a lf-tu rn e d to each o th e r lik e I d u e l i s t s , "chasmed by twenty f e e t ." The w rite r l i s t e n s , drunk, to hear the c ry , wondering I f the j challenge had come a t a b a ll and seeing Images o f a j rose worn a t an e a r, a hot n ig h t, a ,r e n t In a Spanish shawl. But as he approaches, he sees th a t j the two men — " lik e dogs, were using a garden w a ll." ; In a n o th er, c a lle d "1939# he envisions him self e a tin g a Lyons1 chop, watching "the sic k swim o f faces In an A p ril r a i n , and r e a liz in g : Then through the crumbling o f some bread I ' l l ponder,| I ' l l ponder through the scrap in g of a p la te . - How ove which should have been a blaze of wonder, Has been a dusty and untended g r a te , With crooked grimy bars tw isted asunder, Because I t s serv a n t rose from sleep too l a t e . 13- According to John A tk in s, those books a lso r e f l e c t the themes he emphasizes In "The Lost Childhood." | The f i r s t book " d e a lt with the b i r t h of a black c h ild to white parents — a throw-back to some fo rg o tte n g re a t-g ra n d p a re n t," The second was the s to r y , suggested by C a r ly le 's biography o f John S t e r l i n g , of the a b o rtiv e re v o lu tio n planned by a sm all group of Spanish e x ile s In London In 1 8 3 1* The th ird was a d e te c tiv e s to r y , with a ch ild of ten c a s t as the murderer. Graham Greene (London: C alder and Boyars, 1966), p. 15. 14. "Graham Greene: C h ris tia n T ragedian," Graham Greene: , Some C r i t i c a l C o n sid eratio n s, p. 2 6 . j j 15. "Graham Greene," Living W rite rs , ed. G ilb e rt Phelps (London: Sylvan P re s s , 1 9 4 7; , p. *K >. Since th at time, Greene has published books on Cuba, Vietnam, and H a iti — a l l o f which v iv id ly r e f l e c t c u rre n t h is to r y . 16. Henry C u rtis Webster, "The World o f Graham Greene," (New York: Atheneum, 1967) p. v l l l , c a l l s a tte n tio n j j to the accuracy with which Greene represen ted the T h ir tie s - - " th a t low. In g lo rio u s decade." He says th a t; " i t Is p o ssib le th a t the novels from I t ' s a B a t t le f ie l d to C o n fid e n tia l Agent give a more 384 accu rate p ic tu re of the t h i r t i e s than do the novels oi’ | Steinbeck and Dos Passos fo r America, than do those of James Hanley and George Orwell fo r England." Graham Greene: Some C r i t i c a l C o n sid eratio n s, p. 9 . ! 17. The A rt of Graham Greene (New York: R u ssell & R u s se lli T'nc.V 1963) #"P- 57.-------- : ; 18. OP. C l t . p. 19. j 1 9 - op. c l t . p. 7 8 . 20. Nathan A. S c o tt, J r . , "Graham Greene: C h ris tia n T ragedian," p. 29* I 21. (Garden C ity , New York: Doubleday & Company, I n c ., 1935), P. 46. 22. Graham Greene," Forms of Modern F ic tio n , ed. William Van O'Connor (M inneapolis, 194EJ), p. 293- 23. The L abyrinthine Ways o f Graham Greene (New York: ShVe'<T& Vard;”T.959J, p. 152. 24. For an I n te r e s tin g d iscu ssion of th is p o int see Robert 0. Evans, "The S a ta n ls t F allacy o f Brighton Rock," Graham Greene: Some C r i t i c a l C o n sid e ra tio n s, p. 1 6 2. 25. Kunkel, p. 109# quoting G reene's essay on R olfe. 26. "B au d elaire," S elected Essaye (-New York: H arcourt, 1932), P. 344. 27. Greene said of his having allowed him self to read Conrad again on h is th ird t r i p to A frica in 1959 th a t: "The heayy hypnotic s ty l e f a l l s around me ag ain , and I am aware o f the poverty o f my own. Perhaps now I have liv e d long enough w ith my poverty to be safe from c o rru p tio n . One day I w i l l again read V ic to ry . And The Nigge r . " In Search o f a C haracter (New York: The Viking P re ss, 1 9 0 2) , p. 3 1 . ! 28. Greene makes the comment a b o u t d a rk n e s s n o t In r e l a t i o n to C o n ra d 's w orks, b u t to the theme o f H e u s e r 's A fr ic a n JV&vel, The I n n e r J o u r n e y . T his And su b se q u e n t r e f e r e n c e s to Jo u rn ey w ith o u t Maps a re to the uniform e d i t i o n (London: V llllam Helnemann, L t d . , 385 1962), pp. 8-9. 2 9 . Greene Is f a i r l y e x p l i c i t about th is analogy. "The method o f psy ch o an aly sis," he say s, "is to bring the p a tie n t back to the Idea he Is re p re ssin g : a long journey backwards w ithout maps, catch in g a ; clue here and a clue th e re , as I caught the names j of v illa g e s from th is man and th a t, u n t i l one has to ; face the general id ea, the pain or the memory. This j Is what you have fe a re d , A frica may be imagined as saying, you c a n 't avoid I t , there I t Is creeping around the w a ll, fly in g In a t the door, r u s t li n g the g ra s s , you c a n 't turn your back, you c a n 't fo rg et i t , so you may as v/ell take a long look." 1 Among the Ideas he feared avoided such things as 1 r a ts and birds - - was "the Idea of e te r n a l l i f e and damnation. But In A fric a one c o u ld n 't avoid them any more than one oould avoid the s u p e rn a tu ra l." (pp. 1 0 9- 1 0.) 30. The Dying S e lf (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan Univer- s l t y P re s s , i 9 6 0) , p. 59. 31. Kaxlcan Jo u rn a l. The Conquerors Conquered (Carbondalea Southern I l l i n o i s U niv ersity T ress, 1 9 5 8) , p . 1^7. Rodman's comments about G reene's d is to r tio n s are weakened by an excess of h is own z e a l, as is evidenced by such a passage as: "how much h e a lt h i e r is the point of view, lim ited though i t is by a c e r ta in a r i s t o c r a t i c condescencion to the 'low er o rd e rs ' of Mme. Celderfin de la Barca. Coming from England too, and in to a time of f a r g re a te r d iscom fort, cynicism , c o rru p tio n , and le th a rg y , Fanny Calderon was a devout C ath olic h e r s e lf . But she came to le a r n , not to deplore or preach. Her 1 re a c tio n to a l l Mexicans - - from the un principled Santa Anna to the lo w lie s t lep ero — was sym pathetic.; She is not as good a w rite r as Greene. She is o ften naive. But she accepts Mexico from the h e a r t , 1 without c lo sin g her eyes to i t s d e f e c ts ." (p. 149) i 32. "Don in Mexico," The Lost Childhood and Other E ssa y s.i I p. 339. j 33. " In tro d u c tio n ," The Power and the Glory. T ext, Background, and C ritic is m , p. 4. 386 | 3**. James A. Magner, Men of Mexico (Milwaukee! The Brace j P ub lish in g Company, T ^ 3 ) f P* 5 3 6. | 35. I b i d . | 36. M agner, p. 5 7 9. , 37. "Don in Mexico," p. 339. Greene says o f T ren d 's ' account: "The p ro fe s s o r v is ite d Orizaba in 1939: ! the churches were c e r t a i n ly open. He did not ask. ! the reason o r he would have le a r n t how only two years before a c h ild had been murdered by p o lice o f f i c e r s on her way from a Mass house, and how the peasants in r e t a l i a t i o n had broken the churches open throughout the s t a t e of Vera Cruz. He was in Mexico in 1938, too, and flew over Tabasco on h is way to Yucatan. He did not a lig h t from his plane a t V lllaherm osa, or he might by some lucky chance have been p resen t when the p o lic e fire d on a crowd of p e a sa n ts, men, women and c h ild re n , who were s e t t i n g up an a l t a r in the ru in s of a church. But, of co u rse , no one In te r e s te d in e c c l e s i a s t i c a l a r c h ite c tu r e would have v is ite d Tabasco, fo r there were no churches l e f t in the S t a t e ," (pp. 338-39) 3 8 . The Lawless Roads, p. 21. 39. "The M arxist H e re tic ," C ollected Essays, p. U ll. UO. P o in tin g out th at Mexican education is not dem ocratic, but F a s c is t or t o t a l i t a r i a n , Greene sa id : "Tbere is s t i l l an In c lin a tio n to defend the Mexican Govern ment on the p a rt o f labour o rg a n is a tio n s . But Mexico does not follow accepted Id e o lo g ic a l l i n e s , as we may see In the o i l deals with I t a l y andOermanjid'. (The Lawless Roads, p. 8 3 .) Moreover, he added in 1 Bupport of h is a s s e r tio n about the Church's o p p o si tion to the t o t a l i t a r i a n s t a t e : "In Germany motor c y c l i s t s d is tr ib u te d the Pope's e n c y c lic a l a t n ig h t; ! in I t a l y the O sservatore Romano p rin te d what no I t a l i a n paper dared to p r in t — p ro te s t a g a in s t the bombing of Guernica and a tta c k s or. open towns . . ." , (P. 8 5 ) 4 1 . M a n y M e x l c o s . p . 2 9 4 . 42. Journey Without Maps, p. 2 7 8 . 387 43. Oreene was plagued with dysentery and fe v er during much of h is b r i e f stay In Mexico. Some of his ac counts o f tro p ic a l d iseases In The Lawless Roads ! a re almost g ro ssly c l i n i c a l , as when he tra v e ls to the scene of a purported miraculous Image a t Sanoyo: "The man In the pink s h i r t la id In my lap | a b o ttle of maggots which had come out o f a man's n ose." These, he e x p la in s , are planted d ir e c tl y by a large f l y which a tta c k s those lying h e lp le s s . "The maggots ev e n tu a lly reach the brain 5 no cure has beer d isco v ered ." (p. 244) 44. A r tic le 33 of the C onstltu lon gives the Mexican government the a u th o rity to expel any fo re ig n e r deemed u n d esirab le w ith tw enty-four hours n o tice — without giving cause. Lowry, as w ill be noted l a t e r , was a victim of th is sometimes a r b i t r a r i l y ex ercised power. Greene was v/ell aware of the i hazards o f th a t. The Lawless Roads, See the c h a p te r | on "P lan s." i j 45. The Lost Childhood, p. 190. 46. "Congo J o u r n a l," w ritte n In the Belgian Congo In 1959! is an e f f o r t to trace the progress of the novel, £_ Burnt Out Case, which had begun to form by way of s i t u a t i o n , he says: "A s tra n g e r who turns up In a remote le p e r-c o lo n y ." However, Greene says th a t his p r in c ip a l concern with note taking was simply "to e s t a b l i s h an a u th e n tic medical background. ( I n tr o , p. x i i l ) 47. In a "Note to the Third E d itio n " of p^e Lawless Roads, he says th a t: "Those who are in te re s te d may fin d on Page 129 and the succeeding pages the source o f my s to r y , The Power and the G lory." That was not published u n t i l 1940. 1 | 48. Nineteen S to rie s (New York: Bantam Books, I n c ., 1949\J ! 49. According to Greene, the consul "had never known a I fo re ig n e r to use one of these boats b e fo re ." The j J Lawless Roads, p. 1 1 9. i 59- The book concludes with an account of h is tr ip to ! T u x tla, Oaxaca, Puebla, Mexico C ity , and a sid e Journey on the t o u r i s t t r a i l to Cuernavaca and Taxco before re tu rn in g to Veracruz to board a ship. 388 51. The Lawless Roads, p. 2 8 9 . 52. The Heart o f the M atter, p. 2 9 6 . 53. The Lost Childhood, p. 93. ■ 54. Quoted, The Dying S e lf , p. 145. P a ir uses as example of the debasement in r e lig io n the comment o f Innocent I I I in c o n tra s t to th at o f Bernard of ! C lairv au x , who s a id i "All o f my works frig h te n me and vhat I do is incomprehensible to me." (p. 144) R e lig io n , F air say s, has been dominated in re cen t c e n tu rie s by "men of the p r a c t i c a l animal type, whose g i f t is to use in the serv ice of themselves whatever the world may o f f e r and who as often as not give i t ashes in r e tu r n ." (p. 139) 55. A Sort o f L ife , p. 168. 5 6 . Graham Greene* p . 4 l. 57. Greene, I n troduction to The Fovrer and the Glory. Text* Background, and c ritic is m * p.~fc>. 5 8 . P erle E pstein makes a s im ila r p o in t about Lowry's w ritin g in The P riv a te Labyrinth of Malcolm Lowry (New York: H o lt, RineharT and VlnsTo'n, 1969)7V . 8. 59. A x el's C astle (New York: C harles S c rib n e r 's Sons* lM l'J V p . 132. 6 0 . "The Dragon of the Apocalypse," S elected L ite ra ry C riticism * ed. by Anthony Beal (London: ■illlam Helnemann, 1 9 5 5)# p. 1 5 8. 6 1. Robert 0. Evans, e d ., Graham Greene* Some C r i t i c a l C o n sid e ra tio n s* p. 2 3 2 . 6 2 . The Lawless Roads, p. 128. In the novel, he says: ! ""I — the f in o f a shark moved lik e a periscope a t the mouth . . . " and the stran ded ships " . . . now i helped to prop up the r i v e r s id e , the smoke-stacks lean in g over lik e guns p o in tin g a t some d is ta n t o b je c tiv e across the b anana-trees and swamps." (p. 4) 6 3 . The Power and the Glory. Bantam e d itio n , p. 24. 389 64. One of the few amusing passages in The Lawless Roads Is G reene's d e s c rip tio n o f h is nightclub venture w ith a M exican'dent1 s t, whose p a rtn e r fo r the evening Is a p r o s t i t u t e with a mouthful of gold te e th , (p. 8 9 ) 6 5 . Roads. p. 150; Power, p. 19. i 6 6 . See The P riv a te Labyrinth o f Malcolm Lowry, pp. 29- 30. 6 7 . Power, pp. 30-37. 6 8 . The Lawless Roads, p. 150. Speaking of the p la c e , Greene quotes RlTke's phrase: "An empty, h o rrib le a l l e y , an a lle y In a fo reign town, In a town where nothing Is fo rg iv e n ." 6 9 . The Lawless Roads, pp. 1 3 8 -3 9 . The Power and the f llo r y . p p . 101-7 ^ . 70. Power, pp. 55-77. Roads. 1 6 1- 6 7 . 71. Power. 146j Roads. 216. 72. Roads. 178- 8 1 . (The sectio n of the tra v e l book Is c a lle d "Sight of P a ra d is e ." ) 73. Power, pp. 153-70. 74. M arie-B eatrice Mesnet, Graham Greene and The H eart o f the M atter (London: fhe C resset P re ss, 195%), comments on the s i m i l a r i t y ’ between the two books: "His only ad d itio n to r e a l i t y In the novel l i e s in the c h a r a c te r is a tio n of his human m a te ria l, in the power to conjure up l i f e and the I n t e r i o r h is to ry , o f a man. The e n t i r e background Is as c lo se to 1 a c tu a l fa c t as p o s s ib le ." (p. 2 1 .) 75. G reene's essay on Maurlac quoted by Morton Dauwen Z sbel, who makes these same p o in ts . In "Graham Greene: The Best and The W orst," C ra ft and C haracter In Modern F i c t io n . R eprinted QrahanTGreene The Power and the Glory: T ext. Background, alid C ritic is m . ; p. 36l. In chat essay , Greene r a te s T ro llo p e a b o v e V irg in ia Woolf and E. M. F o rs te r since his c h a ra c te rs e x i s t "also in a God's eye." i 1 1 ! 76. I b i d . pp. 361-62. 390 77. KoadB. 178-81; Power, 153-73. 78. In one o f the most moving scenes in the novel, the p r ie s t re tu rn s to the banana s ta tio n to find i t deserted — Oreene h in ts th at Coral*s death may have been a v io le n t one, th a t she was murdered by the psychopathic gangster. When the p r i e s t fin d s C o ra l's j p riz e book of v e rse , he reads from Campbell's Lord U l l i n ' s D au g h ter" and f e e l s in the f o r e ig n w ords, " th e r i n g o f g en u in e p a s s io n . . . a l l t h a t he f e l t h im s e lf o f r e p e n te n c e , lo n g in g , and unhappy lo v e ." p. 6 5 . A l l o t t and P a r r i s s u g g e s t th a t "th e c o n s ta n t r e t u r n o f the p r i e s t and S c o b ie to the f a t h e r - d a u g h t e r r e l a t i o n s h i p and theflfequent a p p e a ra n c e s o f c h i l d r e n in The Power and the G lory and The H ea rt o f the M a tte r a p p e a r to be p e r s o n a l in o r i g i n , (p. lbb) 79. Greene had been In tro d u c e d by the f a t c h i e f o f p o l i c e 1 in V i l l a h e r a o s a to s e v e r a l G reenes in the c i t y - - one a " s c a re d " man whose g r a n d f a t h e r had gone to Mexico from P e n n s y lv a n ia a f t e r the C i v i l War; a n o th e r "a seedy M exican, w ith a d ro o p in g h a t and a gun on h is h ip d esc en d in g the T re a su ry s t e p s . " R oads. pp. 145-46. When a s m a ll blond b o o tb la c k — ua th in t i r e d c h i l d in t a t t e r e d tr o u s e r s l i k e someone out o f D ic k e rs " — came to h is h o t e l room to sh in e G re e n e 's s h o e s , he v;ac f e a r f u l th a t i t n ig h t a l s o be G reene, (p. 151) 80. In commenting on Henry J a n e s ' se n se o f daemonic p o s s e s s io n in r e l a t i o n to The Turn o f the Screw . Greene p o in ts out th at " e v il was overwhelmingly p a rt of h is v is ib le u n iv e rse ." The Lost Childhood. p. 25. 81. R oads, p. 192. 82. "Three R e v o lu tio n a rie s , 1 1 C ollected Essays , p. 412. 8 3 . The Power and the Glory, p. 52. i 84. Karl P a tte n , The S tru c tu re o f The Power and the Glory, re p rin te d rrom Modern F ic tio n S tu d ie s , H i (Autumn, 1957)# The Power and the Glory, T ext. Background, and C ritic is m . p. 3 1 1 ; 3 9 1 | 8 5 . The Power and the Glory. pp. 15. I 8 6 . ' uoted, M arie-B eatrice Mesnet, Graham Greene and the Heart o f the M atter, p. 114. 8 7 . "S tyle and S t y l i s t i c s in Five Kovels," Graham Greene , 1 Some C r i t i c a l C o n sid e ra tio n s, p. 72. 1 8 8 . Devid Lodge, Graham Greene (New York: Columbia U n iv ersity P re s s , i 960) , p . 3 . Lodge says fu rth e r th a t: " I t is d i f f i c u l t not to see behind a good deal ! of the h o s t i le comment on Greene a c e r ta in academic suspicion of the popularly su cc essfu l w rite r . But there is evidence th at Greene him self is f a r from complacent about the kind of p ra is e he has re c e iv e d ." (pp. 3-4) I t is Lodge*s opinion th a t another reason fo r the lack o f c r i t i c a l acclaim is that "his work does not f i t in to the c a te g o rie s that orthodox l i t e r a r y c r it i c i s m has evolved in i t s a p p r a is a l o f serio u s modern f i c t i o n . " (p. 4 ) 8 9 . Although they do not f e e l th at Greene can be compared in esteem with James or Conrad, A l lo t t and F a rris f e e l th at he should be ranked with them "as a p o e t-n o v e lis t, a w rite r s e rio u s ly and devotedly concerned with the a r t i s t i c problems a r is in g from the wish to express a way o f looking a t the w orld." (pp. 3 0- 3 1 ) 90. Dominick P. Consolo, "Style and S t y l i s t i c s in Five Novels," Graham Greene: Some C r i t i c a l c o n s id e ra tio n s . pp. 6 1- 63" 91. "Graham Greene and the I n t e l l i g e n t s i a . " P a rtisa n Review XI (Spring 1944), p. 239. 92. Harvey C u rtis W ebster, "The ./orId of Graham Greene," 1 Graham Greene.. Some C r i t i c a l C o n sid eratio n s, ro te s the e x ten t o f his a r t i s t i c progress by c o n tra s tin g the tr a v e l book with the novel. In the former he say s, "righteous in d ig n atio n a t the treatm ent of C ath o lics in Mexico o fte n obscures h is v is io n ; in The Power and the Glory he dram atizes f u lly and f a i r l y the in sig n cs cnac are n early burled in The Lawless Roads . . . " ( p .15) j 93. John A tk ins, Graham Greene: A B iographical and C r i t i c a l Studv.~DP. n V - i a . CHAPTER VI M ALCOLM LOW RY: BEYOND THE EDOE OP THE ABYSS 392 393 . . . I 'v e o ften wondered whether there I s n 't more In the old legend o f the Garden o f Eden . . . than meets the eye. What I f Adam w asn't r e a l ly banished from the place a t a l l ? . . . Vhat I f h is punishment r e a lly c o n sisted . . . In h is having to £o on liv in g th e re , alo n e, or course - - s u ffe rin g , unseen, cu t o f f from God."1 The hero o f Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, peering drunkenly from his neglected garden w ith I ts hidden liq u o r b o t t l e s , murderous to o ls , snakes and | venemous In s e c ts , end I t s menacing p lan ts and vines Into ! the disapproving face o f h is sober neighbor, summed up the e s s e n t i a l concern o f the apocalyp tic w rite rs who had j ! found Mexico the p e rfe c t metaphor for the western world f [ | and i t s a lie n a te d In h a b ita n ts. Like the o th er voyagers, Lowry f e l t th a t the a r t i s t ' s " s a in tly " mission was to r e - e s t a b l i s h a liv in g connection between s p i r i t and i m atter. Sym bolically, th at could be achieved by a hero I (or heroine) w illin g to undertake the s o u l 's p e rilo u s I Journey through the abyss in order to achieve li g h t and | l i f e . I t Is the force o f th at v is io n , the re co g n itio n of i r Mexico as the stage fo r the drama, and the w r i t e r 's as w ell as h is h e r o 's w illin g n e ss to r i s k the u ltim ate in s u ffe rin g and c ru c ifix io n th at make Lowry's book one of the most d istin g u ish e d novels o f the tw entieth cen tu ry . And there is l i t t l e question about the s ta tu r e and 39* s ig n ific a n c e o f Under the Volcano. Published In 19^7 a f t e r a ten -y ear h is to ry of r e je c tio n and r e v is io n . I t was recognised e a rly as "a g re a t tragedy1 ' by a number o f p ercep tiv e c r i t i c s . Among them was A lfred Kaztn, who told A lb ert Ersklne th at he ; regarded the book as one o f the "most o r i g i n a l and | c r e a tiv e novels o f our tim e." Indeed, he added: 1 f e e l lik e paying homage to Lowry . . . His a b i l i t y to convey In a s in g le tex tu re the d if f e r e n t le v e ls o f consciousness and the e f f e c t upon them a l l o f the Mexican landscape as a stage o f the human soul seems to me one of the most remarkable achievements In modern f i c t i o n . 2 | D espite some p r o t e s t s , J the book's re p u ta tio n has grown i s te a d ily . Lowry, h im self, has become the o b ject of a c u l t , c e le b ra te d fo r hie p ercep tiv e diagnosis of i i ! a l i e n a ti o n , his a r t i s t i c I n t e g r it y , and his contempt fo r j I i m aterialism and p ro g re ss. His p u rs u it o f p e rfe c tio n In i ' a shack on the beach In B r itis h Columbia — a shack th a t he and h is w ife had b u i l t themselves — has elev a te d him i to the r o le of a r t l s t - s a l n t among members o f the co u n ter- 1 i c u ltu re who share his tra g ic v isio n o f western man and the western w orld. A re cen t c r it i c i s m by Richard H. j Costa sums up p re c is e ly the appeal o f Under the Volcano and ex p lain s why h is p o etic fragments and unfinished prose works are In such demand: With tex tu re r e f le c t i n g maelstrom, Lowry gives us a book th a t Is keyed to the contemporary rhythm. I t s unrelieved atmosphere o f Impending d i s a s t e r Is s u re ly mirrored on a le s s symbolic s c a le In the headlines o f the day. The vision j o f the Consul c a ta p u ltin g to H ell amidst i d isso n an t voices has the same power to numb the mind Into d e sp a ir as the world I t s e l f now shaking with I ts own daemonic o rc h e stra s ap p a ren tly In te n t on plunging to I ts own c a ta s trophe.4 A c tu a lly , the book Is le s s a novel than an i j autobiography — confession - - o f a man whose l i f e was e I his g reat f i c t i o n . 3 A would-be p o e t, a would-be n o v e lis t, a would be 'maker o f t r a g e d ie s ,' Lowry was, as he j i fre q u e n tly acknowledged h im self, a f f l i c t e d by a "dreadful f t ! poverty of the c r e a tiv e s p i r i t . " (p. 41) Mexico, whose i landscape he recognized as a p ro je c tio n o f his Inscape — with i t s " c l i f f s o f f a l l / F r i g h t f u l , sh e e r, no-man- 6 i fathomed" - - provided the g reat chance to give I I ! transcendent meaning to h im self, to breathe a r t - t r u t h ! i i and a r t - l i f e In to the fu ry -d riv en Image he had shaped | out o f f e a r , io v e le s s n e s s , l i e s , debauchery, and yearnings. The s to ry o f the f i n a l day in the l i f e o f Geoffrey Flrm in, the a lc o h o lic B r itis h ex-Consul who missed the path to the P leiad es and plunged headlong Into the abyss, Is a f i c t i o n a l condensation o f Lowry's two- year s ta y In Mexico from 1936 to 1938. Like his l i f e , It has mythic dimensions since he was — as he conceived 396 him self — a modern Faust* more lik e Marlowe's than Qoethe's* who had unloosed the horses o f the n ight th at ran so s w if tly . Lowry took co n sid erab le pride In him- B elf as being leBS human that "a daemon."^ But there was a c o n s tru c tiv e as w ell as d e s tru c tiv e sid e to the daemon* a s p i r i t determined to s e iz e something of value from the h e l l i s h joys he had reveled in , determined to challenge the mescal-god he had followed in Mexico so th a t on h is re tu rn In 19^5 he could say: Look* 1 have succeeded* I have transformed* single-handed* my l l f e - l n - d e a t h in to l i f e , nay what is more I am going to make th at l i f e - l n - death pay fo r the f u tu r e , in hard cash. I have come back to show you th at not an hour* not a moment of my drunkenness* m y c o n tin u a l death* was not worth I t : there is no dross o f even the w orst o f those hours* not a drop o f mescal th at I have not turned in to pure gold* not a drink I have not made sin g . (p. 211) Under the Volcano Is evidence th at he did succeed. There Is l i t t l e other* fo r Lowry — a one-experience man — remains a one-book man d e s p ite the volumes th at have been appearing sin ce h is death in 1 9 5 7* a death as Q ignominious as the C o n su l's. He had grandiose plans during h is l i f e fo r a g re a t cycle* which was to have c o n siste d (a t various times) o f three* five* six* and even seven I n te r r e la te d novels. In 19^6, Under the Volcano was v is u a lis e d as the f i r s t p o rtion of a trilo g y * with Lunar C a u stic , a novella s e t in the p s y c h ia tric ward 397 o f Bellvue H o s p ita l, scheduled to be the "purgatory" s e c tio n ; and In B a lla s t to the White Sea, the manuscript o f which was destroyed when the Lowrys1 house burned, as "the P aradise p e r t ." ^ According to a l s t e r p r o je c tio n , 10 o th er novels were to be Included. Although he labored over th at and o th er p ro je c ts during the ten years between the p u b lic a tio n o f Under the Volcano and h is death, he was unable to f in is h any o f the works. The only o th e r book th a t appeared during h is l i f e was U ltram arin e» brought out in 1933 s h o rtly a f t e r h is graduation from Cambridge. He worked on th a t fo r almost a q u a rte r o f a century yet the rev ised e d itio n th a t appeared in 196211 gives very l i t t l e in d ic a tio n of the i i i power and a b i l i t y th a t expressed themselves in the l a t e r novel. I t i s , a p p a re n tly , a reasonably fa c tu a l account ofj | the voyage Lowry had taken as a 1 9 -y ear-o ld , when he got a Job as deckhand, cablnboy, and firem anfs h elp er on a | tramp steamer bound out o f Liverpool fo r the Far E a st. The ra th e r thin e f f o r t to give the book s tr u c tu r e and meaning involves the choice th a t Dana H l l l l o t must make between the world o f men: h e l l , with i t s gargantuan j d rin k in g , s y p h ilis -rid d e n p r o s t i t u t e s , b r u t a l i t y on ship and on shore; and the r a th e r cold heaven presided over by J a n e t, a good angel whose o f f e r of Innocent love he 398 r e j e c t s . The book Is p a te n tly d e r iv a tiv e , owing much to Conrad A iken's Blue Voyage and Nordahl G rieg 's novels. Indeed, as Lowry l a t e r confessed to Grieg: "My identy with Benjamin led me in to mental tro u b le . Much of U ltram arine 12 is p arap h rase, p lag iarism , o r p a stic h e from you." A fte r Lowry's b u r i a l , his remarkable wife s e t t l e d j down to making of him In death the g re a t w rite r she had helped him to become In l i f e . Friends had rescued his m anuscripts from the beach house a t D o llarto n , which had been burned by a u t h o r i ti e s in an e f f o r t to drive out the I s q u a t t e r s ' colony In the in t e r e s t s o f taxes and re n t; she j brought back from England, where they had been liv in g for a few y e a rs , an eq ually large amount of unpublished | m a te ria l. These m anuscripts, most o f which are on deposit! with the U niv ersity o f B r i tis h Columbia in Vancouver, have sin ce been y ie ld in g a r a th e r steady flow o f books — l thanks to the e f f o r t s of Mrs. Lowry and various e d ito rs ' ; i t ] who have worked with her. i F i r s t o f the posthumous volumes was Hear Us 0 Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling P la c e , a c o lle c tio n o f ta le s 13 I and sh o rt novels. J Two o f the s t o r i e s had been published during h is lif e tim e . "The B ravest B oat," a slim l i t t l e sk etch , d escrib es the renewal o f love a f t e r seven years o f marriage fo r A s tr ld , who had been led to 399 her husband "m iraculously" by fin d in g a boy boat he had s e t a d r i f t twenty-nine years e a r l i e r . Lowry's p assion ate preoccupation with fate* d e s tin y , magical coincidence Is not enough to c a rry the s to ry . More In te r e s tin g Is "Strange Comfort Afforded By the P rofession" since I t re v eals so c le a r ly the a u th o r 's i d e n t i f ic a t i o n with Poe, who exercised a profound influence on h is l i f e s ty le as w ell as h is w ritin g s t y l e . "Through the Panama," a | f a i r l y l i t e r a l recounting o f the Lowrys* t r i p to Europe In the autumn of 19^7 , is a lso I n te r e s tin g In r e la tio n to Under the Volcano* since I t is c h a ra c te riz e d by h is ' obsessive referen ces to th at and the Mexican experience. The f i n a l s to ry in the c o l le c t i o n , In which a musician I ! becomes aware of his heavenly co n d itio n — a t one with i h is w ife and with nature In B r itis h Columbia — Is a kind o f v a le n tin e "Prom Malcolm to Mergerle Lowry," And d e sp ite passages o f b e a u tifu l d e s c rip tio n , "The F orest Path to the Spring" Is J u s t about th at s u b s ta n tia l - - su rely not stro n g enough to have serv ed , as he intended, as the coda for The Voyage That Never Ends cy cle. S elected Poems by Malcolm Lowry, e d ite d by E arle Blrney with the a s s is ta n c e o f Margerle Lowry, appeared In 1 9 6 2. ^ The sm all book (seventy-nine pages) Is divided Into groups r e la te d to h is sea ex p erien ce, Canadian l i f e , 400 and the Mexico adventure. The l a t t e r co n tain s the s tro n g e s t and most s t r i k i n g of his poems, but not even they In d ica te a major t a l e n t. Lunar C au stic, which Wat published in s e r i a l form In a French magazine during hts l i f e and l a t e r In The P a ris Review, appeared In book form in 1 9 6 3. ^ Two o th e r novels have since appeared: Dark As the Grave Wherein My Friend Ib Laid ( 1 9 6 8) and October Ferry to G abrlola (1 9 7 0 ).^ October Ferry d escribes the Lowrys1 search for a new house a f t e r th e ir D ollar ton shack had been condemned the f i r s t time. Although the j I f i r s t version o f t h a t , w ritte n In c o lla b o ra tio n with his w ife , had been fln lih e d twenty years e a r l i e r , and although i 1.7 I i t was rev ised l a t e r by Lowry a t various tim es, ' in i t s 1 ! i f i n a l form I t sca rcely f u l f i l l s the promise he has held 1 out to Harold Matson, his ag en t, In 1951: "This I b eliev e j to be a h e l l o f a fin e th in g ." (p. 2 6 7 ) j In r e a l i t y , the most d is tin g u is h in g fe a tu re of the ; ; f I novels and poems posthumously published Is the d is p a r ity | they re v e a l between t h e i r author and the author o f Under 1 the Volcano. A ll o f them are about Malcolm Lowry — as I i th at was. He shows up th in ly disg uised under an assortm ent o f pseudonyms: Ethan Llewelyn In October F erry. William F lan tag en t In Lunar C austics Roderick McOregor Fairhaven, "Present E sta te o f Pompeii"; Sigurd S to rle s e n , 401 "The B ravest Boat"; Kennlsh Drumgold Cosnahan, "Elephant and Colosseum"; S lgbjorn W ilderness o f Dark As the Grave and p r a c tic a lly everything e ls e — who Is complemented In "Through the Panama" by Martin Trumbaugh as the hero o f the novel th at Slgbj^rn-Malcolrn is planning. The d isg u ise Is o fte n so thin* as Douglas Day pointed out In h is Preface to Dark As the Crave th at in e d itin g the manuscript i t was o ften necessary fo r him and Mrs. Lowry to s u b s titu te S lgbjorn fo r Malcolm and Primrose fo r i Mergerle and to give f i c t i t i o u s names to o th ers who | i appeared in th a t la rg e ly fa c tu a l account o f the journey the Lowrys took to Mexico In 1945-46 In o rd er to "exorclsd the ghosts that s t i l l haunted him. Only a c r i t i c In fa tu a te d with the man could give j high r a tin g to any of the books — as a number d id , j 1 ft p a r ti c u la r ly when Hear Us 0 Lord ap p e ared .A O Sympathetic and p ercep tiv e c r i t i c s , who loved the w rite r as w ell as the man - - A lb ert E rsk ln e, fo r example — g en e rally regarded them during h is life tim e as f a ls e s t a r t s and not q u lte s . What the works make supremely c le a r - - as do h is genuinely remarkable S elected L e tt e r s 1^ — is how necessary Mexico was to him as a w r ite r and how r i g h t l y concerned Lowry was about "the poverty of an Im agination 20 th a t had driven him back on old and used m a te r ia l." 402 T h e n o v e l l a s , t h e t a l e s , e v e n t h e p o e m s r e v e a l h i s l a c k o f I n v e n t i v e n e s s . W o r r i e d a l l h i s l i f e a b o u t p l a g i a r i s m , h e w a s , a f t e r U n d e r t h e V o l c a n o , a n o b s e s s i v e b o r r o w e r o f h i s o w n t h e m e s , s i t u a t i o n s , c h a r a c t e r s , a n d l i n e s . D a r k A s t h e G r a v e W h e r e i n M y F r i e n d I s L a i d . " T h r o u g h t h e P a n a m a , " s o m e o f t h e p o e m s r e t e l l I n e x h a u s t i v e d e t a i l t h e w r i t i n g o f U n d e r t h e V o l c a n o a n d t h e p l a n n i n g o f L a M o r d l d a — a s d o , I n c i d e n t a l l y , s o m e o f t h e f i n e s t o f h i s l e t t e r s . B u t w h a t e m e r g e s t r i u m p h a n t i n t h e i I 1 l e t t e r s d e a l i n g w i t h t h e b o o k b e c o m e s i n t h e l i t e r a t u r e I | u l t i m a t e l y w e a r y i n g . O n l y o c c a s i o n a l l y d o e s r e p e t i t i o n e n h a n c e t h e o r i g i n a l s t a t e m e n t o f v i s i o n , d e e p e n i n g a n d e n r i c h i n g t h e i i e f f e c t i v e n e s s o f i t i n a c o n t i n u i n g c i r c l e . T h a t i s t r u e I o f a n u m b e r o f p a s s a g e s , t h e m e s , a n d i m a g e s t h a t a p p e a r j | ! | a n d r e a p p e a r i n o n l y s l i g h t l y d i f f e r e n t f o r m f r o m U n d e r j i ; j t h e V o l c a n o I n t h e p o e m s a n d i n t h e l a t e r n o v e l . T h e C o n s u l ' s d e l i b e r a t e c o u r t i n g o f p s y c h i c a n d p h y s i c a l d a n g e r o f f e r s a n e x a m p l e o f t h e u s e f u l n e s s o f r e p e t i t i o n . T o w a r d t h e e n d o f D a r k A s t h e G r a v e , r e m e m b e r i n g t h e t e r r i b l e e x p e r i e n c e s h e h a d e n d u r e d I n O a x a c a , S l g b J ^ r n - M a l c o l m n o w k n o w s t h a t f o r h i m : " T h e y w e r e d a y s a s b e a u t i f u l a s v u l t u r e s c i r c l i n g I n h i g h s u n l i g h t , a s b e a u t i f u l a s d e a t h t h a t f l i e s J u s t f o r t h e l o v e o f 403 f ly in g ." (p. 223) And In the poem, the Images and fe e lin g s are re p eated , echoing and fix in g the fo o tste p s of the Consul In the memory: The to rtu re s o f h e ll are s t e r n , th e ir f i r e s burn f i e r c e ly . Yet v u ltu re s turn a g a in s t the a i r more b e a u tifu lly than se a g u lls f l a t downwind in cool s u n lig h t, or fans In asylums spin a loom o f fa te for hope which never ventured up so high as l i f e ' s d ecep tion, a s tr id e the v u ltu r e 's f l i g h t . I f death can f l y , J u s t for the love o f fly in g , What might not l i f e do, fo r the love o f dying ?21 Lowry's own disordered l i f e was an answer to th at q u e stio n . He and th e re fo re his Consul supremely exem plified a lie n a te d modern man: Ishmael sep arated from | s e l f , fam ily, s o c ie ty , w orld, and Ood. Haunted by fe a rs and g u i l t , goaded by ambition and yearning fo r Innocence, i he su ffe re d from what Katherine Anne P o rte r had lab eled the "medieval" disease o f a c c e d la , p a ra ly s is of w i l l . He yearned fo r heaven, but found h e l l a more I n te r e s tin g h a b ita t; he asp ire d toward love and c r e a tio n , but reached for another b o t t l e ; he spent h is l i f e probing h is mind and so u l, but — as Douglas Day has noted — he was "never able to defin e him self to h im self, p a r tly because he was a f r a id o f what he would see I f he looked deeply enough Into h is psyche ." 22 To a c a su al observer I t must have appeared th a t Malcolm Lowry was Ideally suited for the role of man who 404 had ev ery th in g : good loo k s, physical s tre n g th and a g i l i t y , I n t e l l e c t u a l and c re a tiv e a b l l l t y f and a background th at would enable f u l l r e a liz a tio n o f a l l h is g i f t s . Born Into a prosperous family in Liverpool In 1909> he was from the beginning an o u ts id e r. His fa th e r was a no-nonsense businessman, who ap p lied him self to the task o f managing h is co tto n brokerage as I f he were carrying out a d ivin e m ission, H1b mother was the p e rfe c t helpmeet; an em inently re sp e c ta b le matron who had no t r a f f i c with a r t ; h is b ro th e r, t h e ir w e ll-re g u la te d o ffs p rin g . For a y o u n g man who had discovered A rt and L ite ra tu re ( c a p ita li z e d ) , who Id o lized Keats and Foe and Jazz m usicians, who was turning out s t o r i e s , essa y s, peoms, and m usical com positions, the Lowry world and household were h o rro rs, "Nobody reads a t home," he oq wrote d e sp e ra te ly seeking escape. ^ Like Hugh In Under the Volcano, he had sought to put as much d istan ce as p o ssib le between him self arid h is r e la tiv e s by going to sea a f t e r h is graduation from public school. His fa th e r had made escape im possible. He had had Malcolm chauffered 1 to the dock In the fam ily lim ousine— to the amusement, contempt, and even rage o f the o th e r men aboard the Bhlp. On h is re tu r n , Lowry f u l f i l l e d h is p a rt o f the bargain he had made with h is f a th e r by re tu rn in g to his s tu d ie s . 405 He boned up fo r e n te rin g the u n iv e rs ity a t the E nglish C ollege in Bonn; and in the summer o f 1932 was graduated from Cambridge with th ir d - c la s s honors in the E nglish tr ip o s . Outwardly, he was a ty p ic a l middle c la s s young man: he had proven him self as a weight l i f t e r , a tenn is p la y e r, a g o lf e r , and a tw o -fiste d d rin k e r. But the w r ite r and musician imprisoned in h is "Liverpool of s e l f , " 2* * was an o u ts id e r a t home and a t school. Although he had achieved some success as a composer o f "slow and ! s lip p e ry b lu e s ," i t was "as much as m y l i f e Is worth to playanything tn the h o u s e . W o r s e s t i l l , from his s ta n d p o in t, when Lowry's family saw him w ritin g "anything ! se rio u s" the told him th a t I t should be "subordinate" to ! I | I I h is " re a l work." (p. 7 ) j i 1 Lowry, however, was determined to be a w r ite r and a c h a r a c te r . Even before e n te rin g Cambridge, he had adopted Conrad Aiken as his " fa r more my fa th e r than my own f a th e r ." (p. 22) (A iken's influence w ill be discussed In d e t a i l l a t e r . ) His genesis was completed a f t e r re a d in g Nordahl G rie g 's Ben.1amIn. Remembering that p erio d , which was to serve as a source fo r In B a lla s t to the White Sea» he wrote l a t e r th at among o th e r things tro u b lin g h is hero — "a stormy love a f f a i r with an o ld e r woman . . . a D ostolevsklan b ro th e r, the 406 ghoulishness o f h is contem poraries, the Ideology o f the E nglish f a c u lty ," the " fe e lin g of hopelessness" th at he might not be a w rite r - - is "the fa c t th at he can find a b so lu te ly no p a r a l l e l In l i t e r a t u r e to th is growing sense as o f id e n tity " with Benjamin, (p. 225) He longed a lte r n a te ly to " k i l l Liverpool and m yself." (p. 8 ) However, a f t e r g rad u atio n , his troubles seemed i resolved . In 1933* U ltram arine was published by Jonathan Cape. Like o th er young w rite rs with a ta s te fo r the su b tle and s o p h is tic a te d — a ta s te l a t e r condemned - - he ■ headed for P a r i s , where In December o f that year he i * ! married Jan Q ab rlal: Yvonne of Under the Volcano and Ruth : | 1 i of Dark As the Grave. Two years l a t e r , he went alone to New York, where he experienced the a lc o h o lic nightmare ! i described In Lunar C a u stic , and then to Los Angeles. | i , i Reunited w ith his w ife , the Lowrys went to Mexico In 1936.j They s e t up housekeeping In Cuernavaca, one o f the i l o v e lie s t o f the to u r is t ce n te rs In Mexico — with I t s view o f the volcanoes, I t s eighteen churches, f i f t y - seven c a n tin a s , four hundred swimming pools (as he catalogued fo r the n o v el), with i t s host of "gay sin n e rs" who had nothing more p re ssin g to do than observe the twelve c o c k ta il hours th at were sounded any day and every day fo r the v i s i t o r s . Lowry was In In d e fa tig a b le 407 a t t e n d e n c e w h e n h e w a s Ln t o w n . W h e n h e w a s o f f o n t h e r e s t o f t h e t o u r i s t c i r c u i t - - T s x c o a n d A c a p u l c o , p r i n c i p a l l y — h e t o o k h i s t h i r s t w i t h h i m . H a r t C r a n e s e t h i s p a c e : t h e m e m o r y o f t h a t d o o m e d v o y a g e r . L i k e «/ C r a n e , h e d r a n k w h e n i n Tpxco a t D o n a B e r t a ' s b a r , s l e p t o n t h e c h u r c h s t e p s a n d o n t h e b a l c o n y o f t h e h o t e l " w h i l e p i g e o n s w a l k e d o v e r h i s f e e t a n d h a n d s I n t h e h 26 s u n . B e f o r e a y e a r w a s o v e r , s o w a s t h e L o w r y s * m a r r i a g e . { i J L a t e r h e r e m e m b e r e d t h e f r i g h t f u l m o r n i n g I n t h e c h e a p ! i h o t e l I n M e x i c o C i t y , w h e n J a n - R u t h - Y v o n n e a s k e d h i m t o c h o o s e b e t w e e n h e r a n d d r i n k i n g a n d t h e n t o o k h e r d e p a r t u r e a s h e s a t " b o w e d , f r o z e n o v e r m e s c a l . " ^ A s s h e i i t u r n e d t o l e a v e , s o m e k i t c h e n w o r k e r s " d r a g g e d t w o j I k i c k i n g f a w n s t h r o u g h t h e h o t e l / A n d s i l t t h e i r t h r o a t s , j b e h i n d t h e b a r r o o m d o o r . . H i s w i f e ' s d e p a r t u r e o n l y I n t e n s i f i e d h i s d r i n k i n g - - l n t h e p o l i t e s u r r o u n d i n g s o f f r i e n d s * h o u s e s a n d h o t e l s I n C u e r n a v a c a ; m o r e o f t e n l n t h e s q u a l i d c a n t i n a s l i k e t h o s e f a v o r e d b y t h e C o n s u l w h e r e h e c o u l d h e a r " t h e on t i c k o f r e a l d e a t h , n o t t h e t i c k o f t i m e . " 7 H e w e n t t o O a x a c a , w h e r e h e h o l e d u p I n t h e c h e a p e s t r o o m I n t h e I n e x p e n s i v e h o t e l t h e L a w r e n c e s h a d s t a y e d I n f o r a w h i l e , d r i n k i n g a n d t r y i n g t o e v a d e t h e p o l i c e a n d p o l i c e U 08 Inform ers. Lowry's customary paranoid co n d itio n was i n te n s if ie d ln Oaxaca by the very r e a l dangers th e re . He had become, in every sense of the b ru ta l phrase th a t enables Mexican o f f i c i a l s to r i d themselves o f those they do not l i k e , an "u ndesirable a l i e n ." I t was one thing to be a "foreign drunk." I t was another to be a foreign drunkard whose p o l i t i c a l and s o c ia l in c lin a tio n s might r e f l e c t d is c re d ita b ly on those i in power. Lowry a c tiv e ly hated the Mexican p o lice and p o l i t i c i a n s ; they had, he s a id , "crim in ally sto le n " th e ir own country and sought to e x p lo it fo r th e ir own p r o f i t I ■■ ' "the weaknesses o f those who are unable to help j 30 ! them selves." R ath er, lik e Hugh and the Consul and lik e ,! ! | j as he pointed o u t, D ostoievsky, he had " p r a c tic a lly a j ■ p a th o lo g ic a l sympathy fo r those who do wrong . . . and get Into the s h i t . " (p. 14) Mexico was a hazardous place fo r a person o f such i | sym pathies, p a r ti c u l a r ly in the years when pro-German and i a n t l - B r l t l s h and American f e e lin g , as Greene had n oted, ran very high. j Lowry, lik e the Consul, had re je c te d a c tiv e involve ment. Yet lik e Hugh - - ln th at case to the C onsul's downfall — he had allowed his passport to be used by a Communist who was leaving from S a lln a Cruz to fig h t with 409 31 the L o y a lists in Spain. To the Mexican p o lic e , he was not merely a public nuisance then, but "de e s p ld e r " and "e sp id e rs" are quickly dlBpatched in Mexico. The Consul was shot on a s im ila r charge; Lowry waB imprisoned three times in the Oaxaca j a i l . Amazingly, he survived i t a l l : amnesia, breakdown, h e a rtb re a k , consumption, cholera* a lc o h o lic poison ing, and "God w ill not lik e to know whdt e l s e . M o r e Im portantly, as he wrote to Aiken, he survived even the j d esp a ir about going on; "Where I am I t is dark. L o st." (P- 15) i j He survived only because he shared with Greene and Lawrence and the o th e r tra v e le rs who had tra n s la te d | the adventure o f Mexico In to transcendent experience a j medieval c a s t o f mind. Mexico had made him f e e l th a t he j t could brin g about the sa lv a tio n o f a l l men with his own s u ffe rin g - - i f they only knew. What he discovered there during the dark night of his s o u l 's Journey made him f e e l th a t: "Like Columbus I have torn through one r e a l i t y and discovered another . . ."33 ^he place had fo r him, as he acknowledged l a t e r , "a su p e rn a tu ra l in f lu e n c e ."3^ Perhaps the most Important thing about the new r e a l i t y was th at i t allowed Lowry to express h is profound r e l i g i o s i t y . He mocked i n s t it u t i o n a l i z e d re lig io n - - as kio Oreene, Lawrence, P o rte r had mocked I t — yet lik e them he was a p assio n ate b e lie v e r In the C h rist myth and the Q u e tz a lc o a tl myth. He, lik e Lawrence, had been mistaken in Oaxaca fo r C h ris t — by a person who followed him everywhere, even to p r is o n .35 jn the V irgin de la Soledad - - the patroness o f Oaxaca, the V irg in , as he and the Consul c a lle d h e r, "fo r those who have nobody with" — he found the mother he had always yearned fo r. He wept before her ! In l i f e w ithout comfort (p. 1 2) , but In one of the few ' hopeful passages ln h is e n tir e work, he re tu rn s to lig h t a candle — to c e le b ra te h is freedom from the h o rro rs of 36 t the F e ro llto and h e l l . Lowry re fe rre d freq u en tly to j ; j the re lig io u s s ig n ific a n c e of Under the Volcano. He I envisioned th a t as a "Mexican ch u rrlg u erlsq u e c a th e d ra l" ; | i | w ith the opening c h a p te r, complete with g arg oyles, the | w esterly tower and the tw elfth and f i n a l the e a s te r ly \ c h a p t e r . " ^ The Cabbala o f Jewish and C h ris tia n o r ig in , he s a id , formed the whole u n d erstru ctu re o f the book. | According to the re lig io u s mind, p o l i t i c a l s o lu tio n s ; are o f no a v a il; the fu tu re o f the world — I f there was to be a fu tu re - - depended upon what might be c a lle d the r e s a c r a llz a tlo n o f the ruined garden. The brotherhood o f man — the brotherhood o f liv in g men th at Lawrence and 411 o th ers had envisioned — had been u t t e r l y betrayed by the re v o lu tio n ln Mexico* Lowry believed* Ju st as I t had ln Europe and the r e s t of the western world. In the la rg e r world* the B a ttle of Ebro symbolised th a t: a m otif that Is repeated over and over by Hugh and Lowry since I t rep resen ted "mankind dying . . . w hile we do nothing . . . In Mexico* I t was demonstrated by the r i s e o f Fascism and the p o l i t i c a l co rru p tio n th at had so appalled | him on the second t r i p as w ell as the f i r s t . In a l e t t e r ! to a C a lifo rn ia a tto rn e y ln 19^6* follow ing the Lowrys1 deportation* he described ln h o rrify in g and exhausting d e t a i l the I n d ig n itie s to which they had been su bjected ! by government o f f i c ia ls * who lie d to them* cheated* and i te rr o riz e d them before t h e ir e v ic tio n . In the very j j o f f ic e s o f the M inistry o f I n te r io r * th e ir luggage was 1 broken Into and Items of value s to le n , (pp. 9 1- H ? ) i References to p o l i t i c a l co rru p tio n and pow er-lustin g p o l iti c i a n s and p o lice make up one o f the Important l a y e r s 1 of Under the Volcano, with h o rro r culm inating ln Chapter E ight In wnlch the dying Indian is robbed by the Spaniard w ithout p r o te s t since I f he did not s t e a l I t 39 the d epu ties would. P o l i t i c s rep resen ted b e tra y a l and treach ery . Also lik e the o th e r m ed iev alists who went to Mexico* *U2 L o w r y b e l i e v e d t h a t h e l l w a s c h a r a c t e r i s e d n o t b y t h e c o m m i s s i o n o f s i n , b u t b y t h e I n a b i l i t y t o l o v e . N o s e p u e d e v l v l r s i n a m a r I s t h e t h e m a t i c n o t e s o u n d e d f r o m t h e f i r s t c h a p t e r , I n w h i c h L a r u e l l e c a l l s t h e p e r s o n w h o h a d s c r a w l e d t h e m o t t o o n h i s h o u s e " a s t u p i d o n e " ( p . 6 ) I t i s t h e r e c o g n i t i o n o f t h e m e a n i n g o f t h a t p h r a s e t h a t r e d e e m s t h e C o n s u l ' s d e a t h f r o m a b s o l u t e d a r k n e s s . (p* 375) T h e p e a s a n t s , t h e o n l y p e o p l e L o w r y r e a l l y l i k e d , e x c e p t f o r h i s O a x a c a f r i e n d , w e r e e x c l u d e d f r o m d a m n a t i o n b y t h e i r c o u r t e s y , t h e i r g r a c l o u s n e s s , t h e i r a b i l i t y t o f e e l o o m p a s s l o n a n d l o v e . T h e y e x p e r i e n c e d l n i t h e i r d a i l y l i v e s — t h r o u g h p r i v a t i o n a n d e x p l o i t a t i o n | I a n d v i c t i m i s a t i o n — t h e k i n d o f " h o l y s u f f e r i n g " t h a t h e j c o n s i d e r e d e s s e n t i a l t o s a l v a t i o n . I t L o w r y , r e g a r d e d h i s d r i n k i n g i n t e r m s o f " h o l y j s u f f e r i n g . " I t w a s t h e r o a d o f e x c e s s h e t r a v e l e d t h r o u g h ! h e l l t o a c h i e v e s e l f - a n n i h i l a t i o n . " W i l l i a m J a m e s , i f n o t F r e u d w o u l d c e r t a i n l y a g r e e w i t h me w h e n I s a y t h a t t h e a g o n i e s o f t h e d r u n k a r d f i n d t h e i r m o s t a c c u r a t e p o e t i c a n a l o g u e i n t h e a g o n i e s o f t h e m y s t i c w h o h a s a b u s e d h i s p o w e r s , " h e w r o t e o f t h e C o n s u l ' s p a t h a l o g l c a l d r i n k i n g . A l c o h o l , a c c o r d i n g t o L o w r y ' s d u a l i s t i c b e l i e f s , c o u l d b e a " r e s u r r e c t i n g b e v e r a g e , " l e a d i n g t o e c s t a s y b y a l l o w i n g t h e d r i n k e r t o t r a n s c e n d h i s c o n d i t i o n 413 and become d iv in e through m ed itating on his s p i r i t u a l s e l f . But i t could a ls o lead to the abyss. At one p o int in Dark As the Qrave, S lgbjorn contem plates the cold hangovers, when the d rin k e r fe e ls "as i f the soul had descended in to the Mayan h e l l , there to contemplate I ts lo s s , i t s l i e s , i t s s i n s , the w aste, the secession from love, from i t s s a lv a tio n , and i t s f i n a l d e risio n of l i f e . " (p. P01) Mescal, which the Consul had confused i with m escalln, was p a r ti c u l a r ly p e r ilo u s , fo r: j : j I 1 . . . in mescal l i e s the p rin c ip le of th at ! go d -lik e or daemonic force in Mexico t h a t , ! 1 anyone who had liv ed there knows, remains [ i to th is day unappeased. Under the influence of m escal, the best o f frie n d s in sober l i f e w ill do th e i r best to iburder each o th e r. But a frie n d sh ip th a t, begotten o f mescal, survives j i t , w ill survive anything, (p. 6 0 ) i 4 l i | The Consul followed I t s dark er route u n t i l h is soul f e l l . ; ! In c o n tra s t to the fholy su ffe re rs* who endured the rack are the men lik e L aru elle ln Under the Volcano and I John S tanford in Dark As the Grave« the man out of the I | nightmare p a st whom Lowry end his wife encountered in Oaxaca on the second t r i p . S tanford is the e v i l man o f the world, as L aru elle i s , since he sin s with no | remorse - - u n t i l the scapegoat has atoned fo r him by paying his deb t. S tan fo rd : "A drunkard who never had the shakes, a debauchee who was never c a lle d upon to pay the p ip e r because — who knows? — he was the piper 414 h im s e lf." (p. 2 1 8) Lowry, lik e the Consul, had every o p portunity to experience pain — to embrace horror, s u ffe r in g , and death; and, by doing so, transcend them. One of his most haunting memories o f Mexico was the Christmas Eve he had spent In the prison ln Oaxaca. A murderer b esp attered with blood was thrown In during the n ig h t, with enough money on him to b rib e the guard to buy mescal. A fte r drinking deeply, his cellm ate wiped the b o ttle p o lite ly and handed I t to Lowry, who could taBte the blood as they wished each o th e r F e lla Navldad. Keeping v i g i l with them was an a lc o h o lic c h ild o f s ix o r seven; . . . and the murderer had comforted him a l l nig ht as the shadow o f the m escal-producing an g elic policeman swung a g a in st the w all as he made h is c e a se le ss rounds on Christmas morning and then the blue sky and the b e a u tifu l country a i r coming Into th is pigpen o f the p riso n , (p. 123) In Mexicoj Lowry — lik e the Consul — had been able to Indulge his love o f death. On his second t r i p when Lowry saw the sign In d ic a tin g Oaxaca, he f e l t a l l the horror-excltem ent he would have f e l t seeing a sign th at read "To Death - - To D ie." (p. 203) J u s t as Geoffrey Flrmln had re je c te d the In v ita tio n to Guanajuato ( l i f e ) , chosing Instead Parian (d e a th ), Lowry r e a lis e d th a t he was drawn to Oaxaca-Parlan by " th a t old consciousness of Ul5 f a t a l i t y th at he wished to re v iv e , the stim ulus o f the old wine o f complete d esp a ir whose cold I n te r n a l glow he s o u g h t,1 1 (p, 210) To the m ystic, of co u rse, to succumb to d esp a ir is an u ltim ate s in . In the novel, th at led to the C onsul's damnation. In f a c t , on the second t r i p Lowry twice attem pted su ic id e — by hanging him self with the cord o f h is d re ssin g gown and by s la sh in g h is w ris ts (p. 1 3 0) — but he drew back from the abyss In time, fin d in g sa lv a tio n in a r t i s t i c c r e a t i v i t y . He transcended d e sp a ir not by Ignoring i t , but by: 1 | . . . an organic turning of o n e s e lf Inside o u t, ! the s e t t i n g to work o f a l l the headlong down- d riv in g machinery o f a c o lo s s a l le th if e r o u s debauch ln the reverse d ir e c tio n , (p. Ul) i I t is the symbolic and s u r r e a l i s t i c q u a lity of l i ] Lowry's genius th a t gave such profound meaning to h is ! i own experiences and to the experience o f Mexico, the country o f metaphor and myth. Where se c u la r tra v e le rs t saw 'charm* and 'q u a in tn e s s ' and 'e x o tic beauty' and 'h i s t o r i c I n t e r e s t , ' he found "arch ety p al daemonic forms" and "dark and ominous forces a t work ln an an cien t and dangerous world."^® His transform ation o f Cuernavaca, th at t o u r i s t " p a ra d ise ," Into Quauhnahuac, the stage on which he s e t h is drama of "man's s tru g g le between the powers o f darkness and llg h t," * ^ marvelously i l l u s t r a t e s the working of th a t genius. Cuernavaca is p re c is e ly 416 th e re , a t the end o f the A m erlcan-style highway leading down from the north to the narrow s t r e e t s : Cuernavaca w ith i t s splendid h o t e l s , i t s w alled houses w ith th e ir gardens and swimming p o o ls, i t s th e a te r s , c a r n iv a l, bus s t a t i o n , c a n tin a s , i t s b re a th -ta k in g view of the snow-covered volcanoes, and the deep ravine running through the town. Like Cuernavaca, Quauhnahuac co n tain s a l l time: the p resent o f motion p ic tu re s and newspapers, the n in e te e n th cen tu ry e f f o r t to subdue Mexico by F ran ce's establishm ent of Maximilian on the n o n -e x iste n t throne, | the Renaissance conquest s t i l l v iv id ly evident ln the I palace o f C o rtes, the pre-H lspanlc p ast o f the In d ia n s , i and beyond a l l th a t — Lowry suggests - - time s tr e tc h in g i back through darkness to the days o f fa lle n Adam. A ll the b ea u ties and te r r o r s o f space are summed up, from the e x a lte d mountain Bummlts down through the dark wood Into the p i t th at had opened, according to legend, "when C h ris t was being c r u c i f i e d ." (p. 15) Quauhnahuac is not i m e r e l y C u e r n a v a c a , i t I s a l s o O a x a c a — t h e l a n d o f t h e d e a d . B y l i n k i n g t h e s y m b o l s a n d t h e a t m o s p h e r e s o f t h e t w o p l a c e s , J o i n i n g l i g h t a n d d a r k n e s s , L o w r y h a s c r e a t e d a n e w w o r l d w h i c h h e p e o p l e d o n t h a t o n e d a y l n t h e y e a r b y t h e d e a d w h o c o m e t o l i f e . For a l l th at i t is an In ten se ly p erso n al and o r i g i n a l U17 work, Lowry*s Under the Volcano is enormously Indebted to o th e r w rite rs and w ritin g s: Sophocles* A ntigone. Marlowe's Doctor F austus. D. H. Lawrence's The Plumed S erp en t. John Bunyan's Grace Abounding fo r the C hief of S in n e rs . P oe's "P a ll of the House of Usher" and o th e r works of p o e ts , d ra m a tis ts , n o v e l i s t s , and re lig io u s w r ite r s . To none of them, however, was I t more Indebted than to Conrad Aiken and the C a b b a lis tic w r ite r s . A c tu a lly , I t was Conrad Aiken who provided Lowry with the Idea o f Mexico as "mission" and who f i r s t made him aware of I t s meaning. Aiken had played an Important ro le In Lowry's l i f e sin ce the l a t t e r as a 19-year-old s i t t i n g In a grubby teashop ln London had become i i "suddenly and b e a u tifu lly a liv e " reading a passage from the "House of Dust" and f e e lin g , too, th a t: Day a f t e r day, beyond a l l dreams o r knowledge Presences swept, and over me streamed th e ir shadows, Sw ift and b lu e , o r dark . . He wrote to Aiken about the experience and became so e x c ited by the rep ly th at in a Becond l e t t e r he declared h is love for Aiken and appealed to him to become h is guardian and tu to r , (p. 6) Aiken responded generously, in v itin g him to spend the summer In Cambridge — a v l s t Lowry made, c a rry in g with him across the A tla n tic l i t t l e more In the way o f luggage than a f o o tb a ll, some klQ m anuscripts, and a supply of liq u o r. For much o f the r e s t o f h is l i f e Aiken was, as Lowry summed up th e ir r e la tio n s h ip eleven years l a t e r , " fa r more my f a th e r than my own f a th e r ." (p. 22) He encouraged him a t school, le n t him money, served as a r b i t r a t o r between Lowry and h is in c re a sin g ly bewildered and outraged p a re n t, read his m anuscripts and helped to find p u b lish ers fo r his w ritin g s . Aiken gave him the m a te ria ls and methods fo r h is w ritin g . In Blue Voyage. Aiken also provided Lowry with the c h a ra c te r he was to becomej Demarest, the hero, is p ictu red as the a r t i s t who Is a victim o f a neurosis and has such a "p e n e tra tin g In te llig e n c e " th at i t w ill not perm it - - o r would perm it only w ith contempt — the n eurosis to work i t s e l f o u t. As his hero of Blue Voyage knew and as Lowry was to adopt as h is creed: I f you want a p a r a l l e l which w ill make the predicament c l e a r , conceive a C h ris t, fo r example, who understood the n atu re o f h is p sychological a f f l i c t i o n , foresaw i t s f a t a l consequences fo r h im self, foresaw a lso th at to y ie ld to his n eurosis would perhaps re ta rd the development o f mankind fo r four thousand y e a rs , and n e v e rth eless had to y ie ld to I t . 45 Like Demarest, Lowry conceived o f him self as an o u tc a st wanderer determined to f lin g him self in to .the h e a rt of the flame in a "moment o f Incandescent s u f f e r in g ," In te n t on s e lf - d e s tr u c tio n : "I w i l l be c r u c i f i e d ." (p. 2k) That^ 419 o f course* Is the yearning o f the Consul as I t was the yearning o f Dana H lllL o t In U ltram arine as he tra v e ls E ast through the Suez Canal on a voyage o f inner discovery Did you know I was li a b l e to stigm ata? Yes* the blood flows from my feet* from the upper su rface as w ell as the soles* and from the palms and backs of my hands. M y forehead becomes moist with blood* and blood flows there a ls o . I l i e on my back* my bleeding hands enveloped ln c lo th s on my1 knees. And a t the same time blood oozes out o f the stigm ata of my sid e and f e e t , and I t t r ic k le s down my temples* cheek* and neck. M y head drops to one side* my nose* as in a mescal trance* fe e ls lik e wax, m y hands are I c i c l e s . 46 i The lin e o f descent from Demarest to the Consul by way of Dana H l l l l o t seems apparent by comparing passages of Blue Voyage and U ltram arine. In the former, the hero ; looks in to the g lass a t one point and Into his r e f le c te d t eyes: . . .but now with a long melancholy* a mingling o f p ity and contempt* Know th y s e lf! That was the b est joke ever p e r p e tr a te d . JT”gleaming universe o f germ c e lls * a maelstrom o f animal forces* o f which he h im self, h is p e r s o n a lity , was only a c o lle c tiv e gleam. A h u rric an e of maggots which answered to the name o f Demarest. (p. 24) I The hero o f U ltram arine broods s im ila r ly : j I looked more deeply In the g la s s . C hrist* was th is me? What was there? Sadness] Misery! S e lf - d is g u s t! T erro r! No g e ttin g away from it* no g e ttin g away from the u nfo rtu n ate H llllo t* th is stro n g c re a tu re with a head o f filth y * In fected h a i r , and a maggoty b ra in and a r o t t i n g consciousness* who dreams o f arc h e ty p a l Images; th is sad dish* Eugene Dana H l l l l o t ] (p. 9 8) 420 The s t y l e , method o f c h a r a c te r iz a tio n , point o f view are c le a r ly echoic. Aiken showed him how to juxtapose snatches o f d ialog ue, t r i v i a l and im portant, with long passages o f i n t e r i o r monologue f i l l e d with l i t e r a r y a llu s io n s , tags o f q uotatio ns and nursery rhymes, s t r e e t s ig n s , and b illb o a rd s so th a t every e x te rn a l event is caught up ln the I n te r n a l s tru g g le . Aiken a ls o provided him with h is philosophy. Aiken shared the fe e lin g o f lo a th in g about a c i v i l i z a t i o n th a t was c h a ra c te riz e d by hypocrisy, c r u e lty , e x p lo ita tio n and above a l l war — - "the whole bloody world going to war fo r nothing a t a l l and a l l 1 ly in g about I t , every man Jack o f them, preten din g there*s ; something holy about It!"**? P rim itiv e Mexico seemed an a lt e r n a ti v e since i t encouraged the flow ering o f the s p i r i t . He envisioned th a t world o f stran g e gods as Qreene had envisioned A fric a : "a deeper and darker world o f which a pure te r r ib le n e s s would be the principle."**® In h is own Mexican novel, A Heart fo r the Gods of Mexico. Aiken used i t as the u ltim a te d e s tin a tio n fo r the psychic journey along the Great C irc le to s e l f and to lo v e, a journey th at assumed "death as a c o n d itio n o f l i f e and c r u c if ix io n as a s p e c if ic a l ly human c o n d itio n ." (p. 7) O sten sib ly , the novel deals with the t r i p made to 421 Mexico by three n o t-to o -p ro p e r B ostonians. Noni, the h e ro in e , has learned th a t she has only a few months to l i v e . Possessed o f a "remarkable q u a lity " fo r liv in g and loving with I n t e g r it y , she wants to get a quick and cheap divorce so th a t she can make up to O il, her childhood sw eeth eart, fo r having deserted him to marry an "A-number-one b astard " and condemning G il to a hideous m arriage, (pp. 41-20) Blomberg, who loves h er and has agreed to keep her co n d itio n from O il, r a is e s the money, makes the arrangem ents, and accompanies them on the s h a tte r in g Journey th a t Is to end with her death. To him, N onl's "tak in g her h e a rt as an o ffe rin g to the bloodstained a l t a r o f the plumed serp en t" (p. 435) Is L proof o f the "divine ex cellen ce o f th in g s ." (p. 452) Both s y b il and "cloud messenger" she Is "the nakedest sou l" he had ev er met. (p. 427) He, her true soul mate, j Is tormented by the ro le he must p la y , c a ll i n g him self "the embalmer," "the u n d e rta k e r," "the best man a t the f u n e r a l," "the c h ie f , i f not the only mourner." (p. 451) But Blom a ls o knows th a t he must s a c r i f i c e him self In I th is r e a l i t y — allow h is h e a rt to be torn out and held up to the sun — I f he is ever to reach the Mexico o f h is dream: the "underground sea" th a t Is "h is s o u l's dw elling p lace and N onl's to o ." (p. 438) 422 As they rid e through the United S t a t e s , Blom c a l l s h is companions' a tte n tio n to the doomed and damned In h a b ita n ts with " t h e i r w ithered faceB and scrawny necks, t h e i r dead eyes and dead s o u ls ." (p. 448) He w rites to the frie n d who had given him money to buy t h e i r second- c la s s places In the 'Slow Coach': You must come and see th is country o f ours - - I t ' s a wonder. Talk about your waste lands - - I t ' s purely and sim ply, I'm a f r a i d , a s p i r i t u a l d e s e rt. These faces . . . A rid , dry, w ith ered , th e r e 's nothing l e f t o f themj th e y 're lik e old corn shucks hung up In a barn and fo rg o tte n . A ll the fa c e s, mind you — everywhere, (p. 451) In the Mexican- p o rtio n of the underworld, there Is a t l e a s t a kind o f l i f e . As the tra in climbs up the "blood- soaked s i e r r a s o f th is dark n o ctu rn a l S p a in ," they hear from the In d ian s: D erisiv e and demoniacal la u g h te r, f u l l o f f ie r c e and abandoned h a tre d , the p rid e o f p rld e le s s n e s s , the arrogance o f the self-condemned; and the o fte n -tu rn in g r e p t l l e - l l d d e d ey e s, which slowly and m alevolently s c ru tin iz e d the three strange Americans, the gringos — with what a loving and v elv ety pansy-darkness o f murderousness they glowed a t these n a tu ra l v ic tim s, (pp. 455-5«) Amid the t e r r o r and sq u a lo r, Nonl w ith her b e a u tif u l blonde h a ir and her frln g e d -g e n tla n eyes, gives Blom clu es th a t she Is " liv in g her own d e a th ." (p. 460) The journey becomes more "ommernous" as the tra in climbs to the summit and then rushes s u lc ld a lly down the slope In to the V alley o f Mexico. There the tra v e le rs meet Hambo — 423 Malcolm Lowry in a c t u a l i t y , S t. Christopher-C haron in the novel. He d riv es them through the night to h is house in Cuernavaca. There, a g a in s t the background o f tr o p ic a l fury expressed by the storm and the s e rv a n ts ' bloody q u a r r e l, Nonl succumbs: " I t was the h e a rt torn from the v ic tim 's b r e a s t, the head s p i t te d on the tzom pantll, the dark underworld c u rre n t o f d e s tru c tiv e and c r e a tiv e blood . . . " (p. 469) Looking a t her f r a g i le corpse r e f le c te d In the g ilt-fra m e d m irror over the bed, Blom Is reminded o f the p ic tu r e o f the Maategna C h ris t: I t was a votive o f f e r in g : there could be no doubt about th a t; i t was, as he remembered now, a throwing o f flow ers in to the sea: and th a t a l i f e should have been so b e a u tif u l, and so devoted to good and b e a u tif u l th in g s, In the face o f the uncompromising p rin c ip le s of Impermanence and v io le n c e , came to him as a f ie r c e renewal o f h is f a ith In the e s s e n t i a l magnificence o f man's e v e r la s tin g d e fe a t, (p. 470) Cuernavaca fo r Aiken — as fo r Lowry — was the p e rfe c t death-scape. In c o n tra s t to the s t e r i l e land n o rth o f the b o rd er, I t was the t e r r if y in g country o f prim al memory: the ruined garden of Eden with gates lead in g to heaven and h e l l . "Quo V adis?" read the m ysterious sign on the u n d e rta k e r's shop. Quo V adis? the overwhelming question co n fro n tin g man. The people In the w hlte-w alled town — with th e ir market s t a l l s , c a n tin a s , new b ic y c le s , bloo d -stain ed 42U knives, churches, d e c re p it buses — were doomed and damned, convicted by the sigh of the s ta rv in g and dying dog. (p. ^6 5 ) But unlike the waste land In h a b ita n ts , they were a l i v e . So was the world o f n atu re : the volcanoes fla s h in g through the c lo u d s ; the sudden, fu rio u s storm s| the "savage and u n fam iliar" tre e s and flow ers; the screaming and q u a rre lin g b ird s ; b e a u tif u l and deadly in s e c ts — lik e ev ery th in g e ls e seeming poisonous. To Aiken, the g re a t f a c t o f nature in the town was the t r e e - f i l l e d gorge: The f e r n lik e tre e s were so In te rla c e d across i t th at one thought o f course I t must be very shallow ; only when one looked a second time did one glimpse — f a r below — and with a sudden c o n tra c tio n of the h e a rt — tin y rocks and rip p le s in the f i l t e r e d s u n lig h t, knotted ro o ts on the dark side o f the narrow l i t t l e canyon, and the s i n i s t e r suckers o f the c re e p e rs , venomous and dark, hanging down hundreds o f fe e t In search o f a foothold. The b arran ca, (p. U6^) Aiken showed Lowry the Quauhnahuac aspect of Cuernavaca and i t s meaning. He p o inted out the s ig n ific a n c e o f the h e l l i s h barranca and even s e t near i t for him the house o f the E ng lish Consul, with i t s badmiton court and I t s s l a t t i n g banana tr e e s . Lowry p ro je c te d upon th a t unnamed minor o f f i c i a l h is own l i f e s to ry — endowing i t w ith "the e s s e n t i a l magnificence o f man's e v e r la s tin g d e f e a t." U25 L o w r y * s I n t e r e s t i n a n d k n o w l e d g e o f C a b b a l i s t i c t h e o r i e s a n d b e l i e f s h e l p e d t o g i v e m a g n i f i c e n c e t o t h e s t o r y o f t h e s a c r i f i c e d g o d - m a n . T h e r e w a s n o q u e s t i o n I n L o w r y * s m i n d a b o u t t h e n e e d f o r a r e d e e m e r . A l l o f h i s v o y a g e s w e r e t r i p s o f d i s c o v e r y o f w h a t t h e h e r o o f L u n a r C a u s t i c h a d c a l l e d " t h e h o r r o r o f m a n , s u n c o m p l a i n i n g a c c e p t a n c e o f h i s o w n d e g e n e r a c y . " ^ U l t r a m a r i n e i s h i s e a r l i e s t w i t n e s s t o t h a t c o n d i t i o n . I n E n g l a n d a n d t h e F a r E a s t . L u n a r C a u s t i c a n d U n d e r t h e ! V o l c a n o e x p l o r e i t o n t h i s s i d e o f t h e A t l a n t i c ; a n d o n h i s r e t u r n t o E u r o p e , h e w a s o v e r w h e l m e d b y I t a g a i n . I n " P r e s e n t E s t a t e o f P o m p e i i , " h e c o m p a r e s t h e r u i n s o f t h a t ( t o h i m ) d e t e s t a b l e p l a c e w i t h t h e n o l e s s d e t e s t a b l e i r u i n s o f n e a r b y N a p l e s a n d c o n c l u d e s : ] J L i f e i t s e l f w a s s o m e t h i n g l i k e t h e d e s o l a t i o n j t h a t c o m e s t o o n e e t e r n a l l y w a d i n g t h r o u g h t h e | p o e m o f T h e W a s t e L a n d w i t h o u t u n d e r s t a n d i n g I t . A w e s t r u c k b y W i e c a l l o u s n e s s , h i s I g n o r a n c e , h i s l a c k o f t i m e , h i s f e a r t h a t t h e r e w i l l b e n o t i m e t o b u i l d a n y t h i n g b e a u t i f u l , f e a r o f e v i c t i o n , o f e j e c t i o n , m a n n o l o n g e r b e l o n g s t o o r u n d e r s t a n d s t h e w o r l d h e h a s c r e a t e d . M a n h a d b e c o m e a r a v e n s t a r i n g a t a r u i n e d h e r o n r y . 50 T o s o m e e x t e n t , m y s t i c a l e n l l g h t m e n t c o u l d b e e x p e r i e n c e d t h r o u g h n a t u r e . T h e t r u e r a n d s u r e r w a y , h e b e l i e v e d , w a s I n d i c a t e d b y t h e C a b b a l a - - t h a t c u r i o u s t r a d i t i o n d e r i v e d f r o m J e w i s h a n d C h r i s t i a n t h e o s o p h l s t s s e e k i n g t o r e c o n c i l e O o d w i t h t h e g r o s s , m a t e r i a l i s t i c w o r l d . H26 L o w r y l e f t n o d o u b t a b o u t t h e I m p o r t a n c e o f t h e C a b b a l a *51 t o h i e w o r k s . C a b b a l i s t i c l o r e s u p p o s e d l y o r i g i n a t e d w i t h G o d a n d w a s b r o u g h t t o e a r t h b y a c o m p a n y o f a n g e l s * w h o g a v e t h e w o r d t o A d a m * w h o p a s s e d I t o n t o h i s d e s c e n d a n t s . W r i t t e n d o w n i n a l l e g o r y a n d s y m b o l d u r i n g t h e 2 n d c e n t u r y — t o p r e s e r v e t h e k n o w l e d g e * b u t t o p r o t e c t I t f r o m t h e u n w o r t h y — i t b e g a n t o a c c r e t e a v a s t n u m b e r o f t h e o r i e s r a n g i n g f r o m a n g e l o l o g y a n d d i v i n e e m a n a t i o n t o n u m e r o l o g y a n d m e t e m p s y c h o s i s . E s s e n t i a l l y * h o w e v e r * b o t h J e w i s h a n d C h r i s t i a n C a b b a l l s t s b e l i e v e I n a c h a i n ! o f e x i s t e n c e b e t w e e n G o d , w h o i s E n S o f ( E n d l e s s ) a n d t m a n * t h e i m a g e o f G o d w h o c a n b e c o m e d i v i n e , G o d r e v e a l s ! | h i m s e l f t h r o u g h t e n m a n i f e s t a t i o n s o f p o w e r . T h o s e m a n i f e s t a t i o n s * c a l l e d S e p h l r o t h . r a n g e f r o m M a l k u t h ( t h e w o r l d o f m a t t e r ) t o K e t h e r ( C r o w n * a c o n d i t i o n o f j ! p u r e b e i n g ) . B e n e a t h M a l k u t h I s t h e a b y s s o f K e l l p a h , t h e w o r l d o f r i n d s a n d s h e l l s f a r t h e s t f r o m t h e c r e a t i v e f o r c e — t h e k i n g d o m o f S a m a e l * t h e P r i n c e o f D a r k n e s s . T h e m y s t i c ' s j o u r n e y f r o m M a l k u t h t o K e t h e r i s a i d e d b y S h e k l n a h . l o v e p e r s o n i f i e d I n f e m a l e f o r m . T h e S h e k l n a h b r i n g s a l l I n t o e q u i l i b r i u m * l i n k i n g t h e a b o v e w i t h t h e b e l o w * e l i m i n a t i n g e v i l b y u n i t i n g i t w i t h g o o d . ( I n s o m e C a b b a l i s t i c t h e o r i e s * t h e S h e k l n a h — t h e m y s t e r y 427 o f Q o d ' e p r e s e n c e — i s a s e x u a l s y m b o l . ) I f a m a n c u t s h i m s e l f o f f f r o m G o d , t h e S h e k l n a h w i l l d e p a r t , e n a b l i n g t h e f o r c e s o f d a r k n e s s t o d r a g h i m I n t o t h e p i t ; h e m u s t c h o o s e . G r e a t m y s t i c s a n d r e d e e m e r s a s c e n d t h e S e p h l r o t h f r o m M a l k u t h t o K e t h e r u p t h e s t r a i g h t , b e n i g n p a t h . T h e r e I s , h o w e v e r , a n o t h e r w a y o f J o i n i n g K e t h e r a n d M a l k u t h . T h e " f o o l o f G o d , " t h e M e s s i a n i c m a n , m a y t a k e I t h e d o w n w a r d p a t h t o g l o r y : d e s c e n d I n t o " t h e f o u l c o r e " o f t h e a b y s s t o r e l e a s e t h e h o l i n e s s t h a t I s l o c k e d I n s i n a n d b y s o d o i n g r e d e e m h i m s e l f a n d a l l m a n k i n d . T h i s p a t h , t h e d a n g e r o u s o n e , c a n b e u n d e r t a k e n o n l y b y a t r u l y M e s s i a n i c s p i r i t , a s o u l c a p a b l e o f d i r e c t s u f f e r i n g T h i s t h e o r y , s o a t t r a c t i v e t o C h r i s t i a n C a b b a l l s t s , h a d p r o f o u n d a p p e a l f o r L o w r y : i t g a v e c o s m i c m e a n i n g a n d i d i g n i t y t o h i s s e e m i n g l y s e n s e l e s s a n d d e g r a d e d l i f e . B y a n a m a z i n g c o i n c i d e n c e , t h e c e n s u s t a k ^ r w h o a r r i v e d a t t h e s h a c k a t D o l l a r t o n o n e d a y a f t e r t h e L o w r y s 1 a r r i v a l w a s a C a b b a l l s t o f c o n s i d e r a b l e n o t e . T h e m i n o r o f f i c i a l k n o w n t o h i s C a n a d i a n g o v e r n m e n t a s C h a r l e s S t a n s f l e l d J o n e s w a s a l s o F r a t e r A c h a d : t h e f o u n d e r o f a C h i c a g o g r o u p o f C a b b a l l s t d e v o t e e s ; t h e a u t h o r o f t w o b o o k s o n t h e s u b j e c t — T h e R e c e p t i o n o f t h e B r i d e a n d T h e A n a t o m y o f t h e B o d y o f G o d : t h e o w n e r 428 o f a n e n o r m o u s l i b r a r y o f o c c u l t b o o k s ; L o w r y * e t e a c h e r f o r s o m e m o n t h s . I n T h e P r i v a t e L a b y r i n t h o f M a l c o l m L o w r y . P e r l e E p s t e i n t r a c e s I n v e r y c o n s i d e r a b l e d e t a i l t h e I n f l u e n c e o f P r a t e r A c h a d * s w o r k s a n d t e a c h i n g s o n U n d e r t h e V o l c a n o . L o w r y h a d l o n g b e e n I n t e r e s t e d I n b o o k s o f a n o c c u l t n a t u r e , h i s w i f e h a s r e p o r t e d . - * 2 B e f o r e h i s e n c o u n t e r w i t h F r a t e r A c h a d , h e h a d b e g u n t o e x p l o r e t h e t h e o s o p h l s t s * c a n o n , f r o m P . D . O u a p e n s k y t o S w e d e n b o r g t o B l a k e , J a m e s , B o h m e , a n d Y e a t s , t a k i n g i n e n r o u t e t h e w o r k s o f A . E . W a i t e , E l l p h a s L e v i , a n d M a d a m e B l a v a t s k y — w h o a l s o p r o f o u n d l y i n f l u e n c e d L a w r e n c e . H e a n d P r a t e r A c h a d s e t t l e d d o w n t o c o n t i n u e h i s i i i n s t r u c t i o n , m e e t i n g r e g u l a r l y t o e x p e r i m e n t w i t h a s t r a l b o d y p r o j e c t i o n ( I C h i n g , Y o g a ) a n d s t u d y i n g t h e C a b b a l i s t i c t r e e o f l i f e , a r e p r o d u c t i o n o f w h i c h w a s ! h u n g o n t h e w a l l o f t h e s h a c k . A l t h o u g h A c h a d * s " C a b b a l a " w a s a l o n g w a y f r o m t h e o r i g i n a l m e d i e v a l c o m p e n d i u m , E p s t e i n p o i n t s o u t , i t d i d , n e v e r t h e l e s s , p r o v i d e L o w r y w i t h t h e " p a r a p h e r n a l i a h e s o u g h t f o r h i s i n t e n d e d r e - c r e a t i o n o f t h e l i f e a n d d e a t h o f a C a b b a l l s t . " ( p p . 1 3 - 1 * 0 G e o f f r e y F i r m l n , w h o i s w r i t i n g a b o o k a b o u t t h e o c c u l t — i s , o f c o u r s e , t h e M e s s i a h - m a g i c l a n m a k i n g h i s 429 w a y t h r o u g h t h e r u i n e d g a r d e n , t a k i n g u p o n h i s s h o u l d e r s t h e s i n s o f t h e w h o r e s , g a m b l e r s , a n d t h i e v e s h e l i v e s a m o n g , b r a v i n g e v e r y d e s t r u c t i v e p o w e r i n o r d e r t o a c h i e v e m a n f s r e d e m p t i o n . T h e r e i s n o f a c t o f g e o g r a p h y , h i s t o r y , l i t e r a t u r e , p h i l o s o p h y , p o l i t i c s i n t h e b o o k t h a t d o e s n o t s y m b o l i s e s o m e a s p e c t o f t h a t o r d e a l . E v e r y i t e m o f " l o c a l c o l o r " s t a n d s f o r s o m e t h i n g I n t h e s t r u g g l e b e t w e e n t h e f o r c e s o f d a r k n e s s a n d l i g h t . E v e r y m o u n t a i n , w o o d , b i r d , b e a s t , f l o w e r , o b j e c t , n u m b e r , o r c o l o r t h a t a p p e a r s r a d i a t e s m e a n i n g u p o n m e a n i n g , a s L o w r y , h i m s e l f , t o o k t h e t r o u b l e t o p o i n t o u t t o h i s B r i t i s h p u b l i s h e r . T h u s , ] 1 r j t h e P e r r i s w h e e l i n t h e s q u a r e t h a t i s m e n t i o n e d i n t h e i ! f i r s t c h a p t e r i s n o t o n l y i t s e l f — t h e i d i o t i c i n s t r u m e n t i o f p l e a s u r e o f a d e g e n e r a t e s o c i e t y , i t i s a l s o , h e ! ! I p o i n t e d o u t : I i ! . . . B u d d h a ' s w h e e l o f t h e l a w . . . i t I s e t e r n i t y , i t i s t h e i n s t r u m e n t o f e t e r n a l r e c u r r e n c e , t h e e t e r n a l r e t u r n , a n d i t i s t h e f o r m o f t h e b o o k ; o r s u p e r f i c i a l l y i t c a n b e s e e n s i m p l y i n a n o b v i o u s m o v i e s e n s e a s t h e w h e e l o f t i m e w h i r l i n g b a c k w a r d s u n t i l w e h a v e r e a c h e d t h e y e a r b e f o r e . . . 5 3 T h e t r e e a n d t h e w o o d c a l l u p I m a g e s o f t h e S e p h i r o t l c t r e e , t h e t r e e o f d e a t h , t h e c r o s s ; t h e C a s i n o d e l a S e l v a , e l B o s q u e a r e I n s e p a r a b l e f r o m t h e m a g i c f o r e s t , t h e d a r k w o o d o f D a n t e , M e s c a l , t h e " a b u s e d w i n e , " i s t h e s y n t h e s i s o f a l l J o y s a n d o f a l l s u f f e r i n g s ; 430 L a r u e l l e ' s t o w e r I s t h e T o w e r o f B a b e l , t h e " l i g h t h o u s e t h a t i n v i t e s t h e s t o r m , " t h e p r i s o n w a t c h t o w e r , t h e F a r o l i t o i n P a r i a n - h e l l , C a b b a l i s t i c s i g n i f i c a n c e i s g i v e n t o c o l o r s , l e t t e r s , a n d n u m b e r s . P r o t e s t i n g t h e s u g g e s t i o n t h a t h e c u t t h e b o o k , p e r h a p s b y e l i m i n a t i n g t h e f i r s t c h a p t e r , h e i n s i s t e d t h a t h e h a d t o h a v e h i s t w e l v e . A l t h o u g h t h e b o o k i s c o n c e r n e d w i t h t i m e o n l y " v e r y I n c i d e n t a l l y , " ( p . 65) t h e n u m b e r h a d u n i v e r s a l ■ s i g n i f i c a n c e a s w e l l a s a r t i s t i c I m p o r t a n c e B l n c e i t t d e a l s w i t h t h e t w e l v e h o u r s I n t h e d a y a t t h e e n d o f w h i c h t h e c l o c k s t r i k e s f o r G e o f f r e y P i r m i n a n d i t a l s o j d e a l s w i t h t h e t w e l v e m o n t h s d u r i n g w h i c h t h e C a b b a l i s t s r j b e l i e v e d t h e d e a d m a n w a i t e d i n h e l l f o r J u d g m e n t . , 1 1 1 H 1 S i m i l a r l y , s e v e n i s i m p o r t a n t — " t h e f a t e f u l , t h e m a g i c , j i _ _ _ _ 1 t h e l u c k y g o o d - b a d n u m b e r . " ( p . 7 7 ) S e v e n i s t h e n u m b e r | ; 1 i o n t h e h o r s e t h a t k i l l s Y v o n n e : s e v e n i s t h e h o u r o f h e r i I ! a r r i v a l : s e v e n i s t h e h o u r w h e n t h e C o n s u l d i e s ; s e v e n i s \ 1 t h e c r u c i a l c h a p t e r i n w h i c h t h e C o n s u l r e j e c t s t h e o p p o r t u n i t y t o f o r g i v e Y v o n n e a n d k n o w s f o r t h e f i r s t t i m e t h a t " h e w a s i n h e l l h i m s e l f , " ^ * C a b b a l i s t i c e m p h a s i s i s p l a c e d o n a n i m a l s , w h i c h h a v e d u a l q u a l i t i e s — a s t h e s e r p e n t r e p r e s e n t s b o t h g o o d a n d e v i l . T h e h o r s e i n i t s b e n e f l c l e n t a s p e c t s I s f r e q u e n t l y c h a r a c t e r i z e d a s s y m b o l f o r J e h o v a h ; b u t i t 431 i s a s r i d e r l e s s , d e s t r u c t i v e f o r c e - - C h a v a j a h , t h e d e m o n — t h a t i t k i l l s Y v o n n e d u r i n g h e r s e a r c h f o r G e o f f r e y . V u l t u r e s , a s h a s b e e n n o t e d , a r e b o t h b e a u t i f u l a n d c o r r u p t ; t h e b u l l s u b d u e d b y H u g h i n t h e ! a r e n a i n T o m a l l n i s a s y m b o l o f t h e e a r t h t h a t m a y c r e a t i v e l y b e m a s t e r e d b y m a n o r t h a t m a y d e s t r u c t i v e l y t u r n a g a i n s t a n d r e n d h i m . T h e g o a t e n c o u n t e r e d b y H u g h a n d Y v o n n e d u r i n g t h e i r m o r n i n g r i d e i s a s y m b o l o f g e n e r a t i o n a n d a l s o o f d e g e n e r a t i o n . I t , l i k e t h e d o g t h a t f i g u r e s s o p r o m i n e n t l y i n U n d e r t h e V o l c a n o , i s u s e d I n t h e p r o p i t i a t i o n c e r e m o n y b e c a u s e o f I t s p o w e r t o t r a n s m u t e e v i l i n t o g o o d . T h e d o g w h i c h , f o r e s h a d o w i n g d i s a s t e r , f o l l o w s Y v o n n e a n d G e o f f r e y i n t o t h e h o u s e a n d < w h i c h i s h u r l e d i n t o t h e a b y s s , i s a l s o t h e s y m b o l - - I v e r y p r e v a l e n t i n M e x i c o — o f t h e f a i t h f u l g u a r d i a n w h o a c c o m p a n i e s h i s m a s t e r i n d e a t h o n t h e J o u r n e y t h r o u g h t h e u n d e r w o r l d . S o m e i n d i c a t i o n t h a t t h e C a b b a l a w a s n o t j u s t o f t h e s u b - b a s e m e n t , a s h e s a i d , b u t o f t h e f o u n d a t i o n a n d f r a m e w o r k o f L o w r y ! s n o v e l I s g i v e n b y P e r l e E p s t e i n ' s a n a l y s i s o f t h e c a b b a l i s t i c e l e m e n t s i n C h a p t e r O n e . T h a t c h a p t e r , w h i c h e s t a b l i s h e s a l m o s t a l l t h e m a j o r t h e m e s a n d s y m b o l s , o p e n s w i t h a n e n u m e r a t i o n o f s e v e n f a c t u a l d e t a i l s a b o u t Q u a u h n a h u a c , " a n a r e a s o o n t o b e 432 recognised as Malkutha the Sephlrah con tain in g the ruined e a rth ly p a l a c e . ”55 L aru elle and Dr. V ig il, meeting fo r the l a s t time on the Day o f the Dead In 1939, r e c a l l the events of the day one year before. Dr. V ig il is re fe rr e d to as an " a p o s tl e ,” a master o f the elements and a h e a le r and guide. The d e v il on the b o ttle o f anis r e c a l l s ! G eoffrey, p e r f e c t l r v drunk, yet sick in so u l, and h is l a s t message to L a ru e lle : "One cannot liv e w ithout love" J - - a rep h rasin g of the C ab balist b e l i e f that only love Is ' as stro ng as ie a t’ n. ! The landscape suggests the C onsul's i n i t i a t i o n : the ! I ! volcanoe ten miles away re p re se n ts the f i n a l goal o f the I ten S ep h lro th , with the purple f o o t h i l l s stan d in g fo r Yesod. the f i r s t plane lead in g out o f Malkuth in to higher i w orlds, (p. 6l ) L a ru e lle , a c re a to r o f I llu s io n s (as a ! movle-maker) Is considered c h a r a c t e r is t i c o f the man liv in g in the gross world o f m atter; y e t, he, is now ■ i | beginning to experience a s p i r i t u a l awakening. Walking ; dow nhill, he comes upon the P e rris wheel and hears the sounds o f the "St. Louis B lues," the sad music su ggesting man's l o t . Blue sym bolises the magician and the Sephlrah of mercy, Chesed. toward which the Consul Is s t r i v i n g ; but Geoffrey Is lik e the ruined blue Ford L aru elle comes upon — unable to journey upward. The b la ste d tower he *33 t h e n s e e s s y m b o l i z e s , l i k e t h e F & r o l l t o c a n t i n a , t h e T o w e r o f B a b e l - - a C a b b a l i s t i c m e t a p h o r f o r t h e c o n f u s i o n r e s u l t i n g f r o m e f f o r t s t o p a s s o n t h e s e c r e t s | o f heaven to the u n i n i ti a t e d , (p. 62) As L aru elle I a p p r o a c h e s t h e a b y s s , K e l l p a h , h e I s r e m i n d e d o f Y v o n n e f a n d l i n k s h e r w i t h t h e C a t h e d r a l o f C h a r t r e s a f i r s t j r e f e r e n c e t o h e r r o l e a s t h e d i v i n e S h e k l n a h , B e y o n d t h e r u i n e d g a r d e n I n t h e p a l a c e o f M a x i m i l i a n l i e s t h e a b y s s , w h i c h i s a l s o e q u a t e d t f i t h t h e " H e l l B u n k e r " w h e r e G e o f f r e y , a s a b o y , h a d d i s c o v e r e d s e x . R e c a l l i n g G e o f f r e y ' s m y s t e r i o u s o r i g i n , L a r u e l l e I s r e m i n d e d t h a t h e w a s t h e s e v e n t h r e l a t i v e o f o l d e r a n d t o u g h e r s o n s o f A b r a h a m j G e o f f r e y ' s t a s k w a s t o f i n d t h e l o s t f a t h e r w h o \ i ; i d i s a p p e a r e d I n t h e H i m a l a y a s - - i . e . t o r e u n i t e h i s j s o u l w i t h G o d . A f t e r a l m o s t b e i n g r u n d o w n b y a d r u n k e n r i d e r ( t h e h o r s e a s d e s t r u c t i v e p o w e r ) , L a r u e l l e e n t e r s t h e c a n t i n a ! n e x t t o t h e c i n e m a — a g a i n , t h e w o r l d o f i l l u s i o n — w h i l e t h e s t o r m r a g e s o u t s i d e . T h e p r o p r i e t o r g i v e s h i m G e o f f r e y ' s c o p y o f a v o l u m e o f E l i z a b e t h a n p l a y s , r e m i n d i n g L a r u e l l e o f h i s s i m i l a r i t y t o M a r l o w e ' s F a u s t u s a n d s u g g e s t i n g t h e p o s s i b i l i t y t h a t G e o f f r e y w a s a k i n d o f M e s s i a h , s e e k i n g t o a t o n e f o r g u i l t . G e o f f r e y h a d b e e n r e s p o n s i b l e f o r t h e m u r d e r o f s o m e G e r m a n p r i s o n e r s 434 of war aboard hla sh ip , the S. S. S am aritan. In C a b b a listic terms, as Mrs. E pstein p o in ts o u t, the Consul had thus " e ith e r d e lib e r a te ly o r u n w ittin g ly turned h is power from th at o f a c r e a to r (lamb) to th a t o f a J d estro y e r (Leviathan) during a p ast I n i t i a t o r y t r i a l (the s e a ) ." (p. 70) He a lso assumes the g u i l t o f a l l men. L aru elle fin d s In the l e t t e r Geoffrey had w ritte n to Yvonne and never mailed h is appeal to the Sheklnah fo r i re le a s e from mental c r u c if ix io n . The tr a in Journey to i h e l l , mentioned In I t , a ls o suggests th at the Consul I had — even In the abyss — re ta in e d some o f h is magical ! | power since he had saved the l i f e o f a c h ild passenger i j I on the tra in by rubbing I t s b e lly w ith te q u ila — "the sacred wine as a l i f e - g i v i n g as w ell as a I lf e - d e s tr o y ln g . i : power." (p. 7 1 ) i | In th at l e t t e r , Geoffrey a ls o d escribes h is v isio n ! o f p a ra d ise ft/hlch is used in c o n tra s t w ith the Kellpah j I throughout the book): a place in a northern country o f | mountains and h i l l s and blue w ater, where he and Yvonne i : are stan d in g on the balcony o f th e i r house overlooking the w ater facin g e a s t: . . . lik e Swedenborg's a n g e ls, under a sky c le a r save where f a r to the n o rth e a st over d i s t a n t mountains whose l i g h t has faded, l i e s a mass o f almost pure white clouds, suddenly, as by a l i g h t In an a la b a s te r lamp, Illum ined from w ith in by gold lig h tn in g . . .5 6 *35 He knows th a t w ithout Yvonne, God's Sheklnah. he w i l l never be able to make h is way out o f the abyss. He cannot d i r e c t l y ask her to r e tu r n , as Mrs. Epstein p o in ts o u t, since every cry fo r help from h e l l Is "a step deeper down, f u r th e r away from God," (p. 73) But In the l e t t e r th at was never m ailed, he pleads w ith her to i re tu rn I f only fo r a day. She does, o f course, fo r those magical twelve hours th at were to end in h o rro r. The f i r s t c h a p te r, which concludes with the t o l li n g of b e lls a f t e r L aru elle has burned the C onsul's l e t t e r , i c re a te s an am bivalent conclusion to the book. In the i f i n a l c h a p te r, Geoffrey is shot and k ille d by the Chief o f Rostrums a f t e r he had unloosed the horse he and the o th e r o f f i c i a l s had s to le n . That d e s tru c tiv e force had i k ille d Yvonne, but in so doing I t had tran sp o rted her ! from the world o f husks and rinds "towards O rion, the P leiad es . . . " and in h is f i n a l moments, Geoffrey had i experienced a conversion: d is s o c ia tin g him self from the o th e r waste land vlctlm -accom pllces, he had trie d to v in d ic a te the Indian they l e f t dying. He had s e t aside the world o f i l lu s i o n and h a tre d , asking Yvonne's fo rg iv en ess and re p e a tin g the words th a t could triumph over death: "No se. puede v l v l r s in amar." I t Is th a t asp ect o f the C onsul's death th at Is 436 n e g l e c t e d b y M r s . E p s t e i n . F o r G e o f f r e y , a c c o r d i n g t o C a b b a l l s t b e l i e f , h a d t r i u m p h e d o v e r e v i l a n d d e a t h b y h i s a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t o f l o v e . H e l l f s c h i e f t a i n s , w h o J u d g e d t h e i n h a b i t a n t s o f t h e a b y s s a f t e r t w e l v e m o n t h s , w e r e r e n d e r e d p o w e r l e s s t o c o n v i c t h i m . T h a t o r d e a l t h e n d o e s n o t e n d , a s h i s t w e l v e - h o u r o r d e a l h a d b y t h e i r f l i n g i n g h i m o v e r t h e p r e c i p i c e i n t o t h e c h a s m . A q u i t e d i f f e r e n t v e r d i c t m u s t b e r e n d e r e d i n C h a p t e r O n e s i n c e t h e r e a d e r s — m e n o f t h e w o r l d , l i k e L a r u e l l e , h a v e i g a i n e d k n o w l e d g e d u r i n g t h a t d a y w h e n t h e d e a d r e t u r n t o j l i f e o f t h e e x t e n t o f h i s s u f f e r i n g a n d t h e d e p t h o f h i s I ! l o v e . L a r u e l l e h a d b e e n r e d e e m e d b y t h e o r d e a l ; t h e r e I s i f I „ M a n a i r o f b e a u t y a n d a s o r t o f p i e t y a b o u t t h e s c e n e I n | i t h e c a n t i n a w h e n h e h a s f i n i s h e d r e a d i n g t h e l e t t e r . ! i | G e o f f r e y ' s s o u l w a s b e i n g g r a n t e d a b s o l u t i o n b y t h e j I p e a s a n t s — t h e o n l y p e o p l e w h o e s c a p e d d a m n a t i o n I n t h e I j | r u i n e d g a r d e n . J u s t a s I n h i s d y i n g m o m e n t s h e h a d b e e n b l e s s e d b y t h e c o m p a s s i o n a t e o l d f i d d l e r , w h o h a d c a l l e d h l m " C o m p a n e r o , " L o w r y , h i m s e l f f e l t t h a t s t r o n g l y . A s h e p o i n t e d o u t M ' i n t h e l e t t e r t o J o n a t h a n C a p e : I d o n ' t t h i n k t h e c h a p t e r ' s f i n a l e f f e c t s h o u l d b e d e p r e s s i n g : I f e e l y o u s h o u l d m o s t d e f i n i t e l y g e t y o u r k a t h a r s l s , w h i l e t h e r e I s e v e n a h i n t o f r e d e m p t i o n f o r t h e p o o r o l d C o n s u l a t t h e *37 e n d ."57 Moreover, as he pointed out in the conclusion o f th a t l e t t e r : The book should be seen as e s s e n t i a l l y trochal> I re p e a t, the form o f I t as a wheel so th a t , when you get to the end, I f you have read c a r e f u lly , you should want to turn back to the beginning ag ain , where i t Is not im possible, too, th at your eye may a lig h t once more upon Sophocles' Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man - - J u s t to cheer you up. (p. SBJ He was c o rre c t a ls o in th at l e t t e r about the a r t i s t r y o f the book, which he had "so designed, c o u n te r designed and Interw elded th a t i t could be read an in d e f in ite number of times and s t i l l not have yielded a l l i t s meanings o r i t s drama or i t s p o e try ." (p. 8 8 ) Under the Volcano is undoubtedly a marvelous l i t e r a r y achieve ment. In a good many re sp e c ts the book is d e r iv a tiv e , as Jacques Barzun sa id In h is c r u e l review, c a ll i n g i t "an anthology held to g eth er by e a rn e s tn e s s ."5® But out of h is wide re a d in g , h is borrow ings, his I n t e r e s t in the Cabbala, In music, and in motion p ic tu r e s , Lowry created a work th a t expanded the p o s s i b i l i t i e s o f the novel and extended I t s l i m i t s . To be s u re , as he pointed o u t, I t can be read simply as a s to ry . But, a ls o : I t can be regarded as a kind o f symphony, o r in another way as a kind o f opera — o r even a horse opera. I t Is hot music, a poem, a song, a tragedy, a comedy, a f a r c e , and so f o r th . I t Is s u p e r f i c i a l , profound, e n te r ta in in g and b oring, according to ta s te . I t is a prophecy, p o l i t i c a l warning, a cryptogram , a preposterous movie, and a w ritin g 438 on the w a ll. I t can even be regarded as a s o rt o f machine . . .5 9 Because i t was each and a l l of those th in g s, the account of the s in g le day In the l i f e o f a man symbolizes the sou l search o f western man, compressing fiv e hundred years o f h is to r y In a tw elve-hour span and p ro je c tin g i who knows how many c e n tu rie s o f Judgment in the twelve month span th a t elap ses before a f in a l v e rd ic t is re tu rn e d . The book encompasses a l l time and a l l space. i Lowry was w ell aware o f what he was about In h is I l i f e ' s work. So was h is w ife, M argerie. She wrote to i | t h e ir ag e n t, Harold Matson, in the summer o f 19^5 a f t e r ! 11b r e je c tio n by D u ell, Sloan and Pearce on the grounds th at the m a te ria l needed to be placed In na sh arper and more dram atic form" th a t the book was " a c tu a lly , some j s o r t o f m asterp iec e." (p. 421) Mrs. Lowry would have ! nothing to do then — o r some months l a t e r in Mexico — i i w ith the idea th a t the book be re w ritte n o r 'c u t down to s i z e . ' C a llin g i t a c l a s s i c , a m ilestone, she a s s e rte d | i t s need to be d e a lt with on th a t b a s is : . . . fo r some reason the r e a l ly unique work of a r t always arouses e i t h e r o u trig h t antagonism in the f i r s t people who see I t and before time has proved I t s place In the world o f a r t , o r , f a l l i n g th a t, merely a complete lack o f understanding. I t I s , perhaps, p rim a rily a w r i t e r 's book, and one which Is l i k e l y to Influence o th e r w rite rs and so f i l t e r down to the g eneral public . . . I t has found i t s form, i t is complete . . . (p. 422) 439 I t was h er b e l i e f th at c a r r ie d , encouraging the agent to continue to submit I t to various e d ito rs and en abling Lowry to compose the l e t t e r to Jonathan Cape, one o f the most unusual l i t e r a r y documents of recent tim es, a f t e r a reader had so read and m ls-read the book, as to suggest th a t w ith an enormous amount o f c u ttin g and pruning and reworking, I t might be p o ssib le to transform Under the Volcano Into another The Lost Weekend - - which he feared I t alread y too c lo s e ly resembled. Among o th e r th in g s , the reader had o b jected to the "slow S t a r t " ; the " I n i t i a l tedium"; the le n g th ; the " e c c e n tric word-spinning and too much stream -o f-consciousness s t u f f " ; the long flashbacks; the Mexican l o c a l c o lo r, w ell done but "heaped on In ! s h o v e lfu ls " ; and the "m escal-Inspired phantasm agoria, o r 1 h e e b ie -je e b ie s to which Geoffrey has succumbed . . . " (PP* 57-60) Although Lowry, who received the l e t t e r on j i New Yearfs Eve In Cuernavaca, was without a m anuscript and was d rin k in g w ildly and so d esp a irin g th a t he twice attem pted su ic id e during I t s com position, he was nonetheless able to compose a response th a t should be l Included as a preface to the novel. Lucid, co h eren t, I t deals so c a r e f u lly w ith the s t r u c t u r e , themes, c h a r a c te r iz a tio n , p l o t , and techniques as to make a l l o th e r c r it i c i s m d e r iv a tiv e . I t re v e a ls , as he promised, 440 how organic and r ig h t are each ep iso d e, l i n e , d e t a i l in terms o f the "whole churrlgueresque s t r u c t u r e ," which he hoped — he said — "may begin soon to loom out of the fog fo r you lik e B orda's h o r r ib le - b e a u tif u l c a th e d ra l In Taxco." (p. 6l ) During the years from 1936, when he said th at he had f i r s t begun to work on i t , and 19* 15* when he and h is wife held I t to be In f i n a l form, i t had been changed many i tim es. In the f i r s t d r a f t , which was re je c te d by twelve p u b lish e rs during 1940 and 19*11, Yvonne was the C onsul's ; i | daughter; Hugh Fernhead — who became Hugh Flrm ln, j | G eo ffrey 's h a lf - b r o th e r — was h er fia n c e ; L aru elle had only a minor r o l e .^ 0 But Lowry had always kept the o r l g l - ; i nal point o f departure — the g h a stly c e n tr a l episode in f C hapter E ig h t, In which the dying Indian is l e f t by the [ j roadside by the passengers on the bus: Americans, j 1 j Mexicans, and the Spanish pelado who has robbed him. ; I The Mexican law which makeB I t a crime to provide I a s s is ta n c e fo r a person In ju red In a road accident summed up fo r Lowry, as I t has fo r many o b se rv e rs, the dehumanisation o f man by the I n s t i t u t i o n s he c reated to enable him to be more human. Such an episode had occurred In 1936, when Lowry and M 41 hie f i r s t wife had taken a bus from Cuernavaca to a b u l l- throwing. One o f the two Americans with them was dressed in a cowboy costume; h is c lo th in g having been impounded a t the border. Halfway to the a re n a , they had seen an Indian who seemed to by dying by the ro ad sid e. "We a l l wanted to help o u t," he remembered l a t e r , ^1 but were prevented by Mexican law and l e f t him where he was. Meanwhile, a drunk on the bus who had sto le n the In d ia n 's money, used i t to pay h is fa re and to but a tic k e t to the b u ll-th ro w in g . "The whole s to ry grew out o f th at In c id e n t." (p. 151) A fte r beginning I t as a sh o rt s to r y , f he had f e l t th at nobody had w ritte n "an adequate book upon d rin k in g ." Being a co n sid erab le a u th o rity on the j I s u b je c t, he decided to e la b o ra te th at theme and Incorporate i t in to the f i r s t . The l a s t p a r t o f the book was a c tu a lly I the f i r s t p a r t w ritte n - - w ith the Consul shot by j 1 policemen In a pub. O rig in a lly the c a n tin a was above the barranca on the o u ts k ir t s o f Cuernavaca; but a f t e r having gone to Oaxaca, he changed the natu re o f I t to resemble one there c a ll i n g I t s e l f the F a r o l l t o , "which used to open a t four in the m orning." (p. 1 5 1) From those "germs" the novel evolved on a l l o f I ts many p lan es. I t Is not a c c u ra te , I th in k , to say th at there Is no e x te r n a l, "only p e rip h e ra l" a c tio n — th at UU2 " N o b o d y m o v e s , n o t h i n g h a p p e n s , " ^ 2 T h e d a y I s c r o w d e d w i t h e v e n t s , f r o m Y v o n n e * s a r r i v a l a t s e v e n I n t h e m o r n i n g u n t i l s h e a n d G e o f f r e y a r e k i l l e d s h o r t l y b e f o r e s e v e n t h a t e v e n i n g . T h e s h i f t i n g p o i n t s o f v i e w e n h a n c e t h e a c t i o n s i n c e t h e s t o r y i s t o l d t h r o u g h h e r m i n d , H u g h * s , L a r u e l l e * s , a s w e l l a s t h e C o n s u l * s — - j u s t a s I n T h e S o u n d a n d t h e F u r y t h e m u l t i p l e p o l n t B o f v i e w m u l t i p l y e v e n t s a n d e n h a n c e t h e s i g n i f i c a n c e o f e a c h e v e n t . F o r e x a m p l e , t h e e n c o u n t e r w i t h L a r u e l l e b e c o m e s i a h i g h l y d r a m a t i c b i t o f a c t i o n b e c a u s e w e k n o w o f t h e I i t e n s i o n s t h a t t h e m e e t i n g b e t w e e n Y v o n n e , h e r h u s b a n d , l i a n d h e r t w o f o r m e r l o v e r s g e n e r a t e s i n e a c h o f t h e m . T h e b u l l - t h r o w i n g , t h e q u a r r e l i n t h e c a n t i n a d u r i n g W h i c h j t h e C o n s u l l e a v e s h i s c o m p a n i o n s , t h e b u s t r i p t o T o m a l i n , t h e v i s i t b y D r . V i g i l , t h e s e a r c h f o r t h e C o n s u l , t h e v i s i t t o t h e p r o s t i t u t e , t h e p o l i c e s h o o t i n g - - a l l t h o s e h a p p e n i n g s g i v e a f e e l i n g o f m o v e m e n t t o t h e b o o k a s r a p i d a s a m o t i o n p i c t u r e . I t I s n o t u n e x p e c t e d t h a t L o w r y d i s p l a y e d v e r y r e a l g i f t s a s a s c r i p t w r i t e r . B u t t h e s w i f t c u r r e n t o f a c t i o n — e x t e r n a l h a p p e n i n g s — I s l e s s i n t e r e s t i n g a n d l e s s s i g n i f i c a n t t h a n t h e s l o w - m o v i n g u n d e r c u r r e n t o f i n t e r n a l a c t i o n . T h e s t o r y i s t o l d I n t w o d i f f e r e n t k i n d s o f t i m e t t h e m o m e n t I s a l w a y s s e t i n t h e y e a r s b e f o r e a n d t h e e t e r n i t y t o 443 come, a s , f o r example, the C onsul's r e s i s t i n g the drin k on the mlrador a t L aru elle* s h is f a i l u r e to achieve sexual union w ith Yvonne, (pp. 89-91) Because the people lik e the events in Under the Volcano e x is t In d if f e r e n t concepts of time, more than a few have been troubled by what Cape's re ad er c a lle d the "weak" c h a r a c te r iz a tio n . Those charges were a lso made a g a in st the c h a ra c te rs In Lawrence's Mexican books, Greene's The Power and the Glory, and P o r t e r 's Ship of P o o ls. C h ara cter, as I t Is custo m arily understood, was j m «64 to Lowry h is l a s t c o n sid e ra tio n as i t was A r i s t o t l e 's . There a r e , he wrote to Jonathan Cape, "a thousand w rite r s who can draw adequate c h a ra c te rs t i l l a l l is blue f o r j i i ! I I one who can t e l l you anything new about h e l l f i r e . And I | i ! am t e l l i n g you something new about h e ll f i r e . " (p. 8 0 ) Although the Consul had to be p a r tic u la r iz e d enough to be b e lie v a b le , what was im portant to Lowry was th a t he be accepted and understood as "Everyman" - - " ju s t as Yvonne is so to speak the e t e r n a l woman, as in P a r s i f a l . Kundry, whoever she was, angel and d estro y e r b o th .” (p. 8l) The Consul is not Everyman in h im selfj h is o th e r aspect is Hugh and even Yvonne and L aru elle and Juan C e r r ll l o and Dr. V ig il and o th ers beyond. Lowry was q u ite e x p l i c i t about what he was up to: . . . I h a v e n o t e x a c t l y a t t e m p t e d t o d r a w c h a r a c t e r s I n t h e n o r m a l s e n s e . . . t h e r e J u s t i s n ' t r o o m : t h e c h a r a c t e r s w i l l h a v e t o w a i t f o r a n o t h e r b o o k , t h o u g h I d i d g o t o i n c r e d i b l e t r o u b l e t o m a k e m y m a j o r c h a r a c t e r s s e e m a d e q u a t e o n t h e m o s t s u p e r f i c i a l p l a n e o n w h i c h t h i s b o o k c a n b e r e a d , a n d 1 b e l i e v e i n s o m e e y e s t h e c h a r a c t e r d r a w i n g w i l l a p p e a r t h e r e v e r s e o f w e a k . ( W h a t a b o u t f e m a l e r e a d e r s ? ) T h e t r u t h i s t h a t t h e c h a r a c t e r d r a w i n g i s n o t o n l y w e a k b u t v i r t u a l l y n o n e x i s t e n t , s a v e w i t h C e r t a i n m i n o r c h a r a c t e r s , t h e f o u r m a i n c h a r a c t e r s b e i n g i n t e n d e d , i n o n e o f t h e b o o k ' s m e a n i n g s , t o b e a s p e c t s o f t h e s a m e m a n , o r o f t h e h u m a n s p i r i t , a n d t w o o f t h e m , H u g h a n d t h e C o n s u l , m o r e o b v i o u s l y a r e . I s u g g e s t t h a t h e r e a n d t h e r e w h a t m a y l o o k l i k e u n s u c c e s s f u l a t t e m p t s a t c h a r a c t e r d r a w i n g m a y o n l y b e t h e c o n c r e t e b a s e s t o t h e c r e a t u r e ' s l i v e s w i t h o u t w h i c h a g a i n t h e b o o k c o u l d n o t b e r e a d a t a l l . ( p . 60) T h a t w a s p r e c i s e l y w h a t t h e o t h e r p s y c h i c v o y a g e r s h a d a t t e m p t e d : t o g i v e t h e h u m a n s o u l a n d s p i r i t o n l y e n o u g h p a r t i c u l a r i t y a n d s u b s t a n c e t o e n a b l e t h e r e a d e r t o I d e n t i f y i t a n d t o e n c o u r a g e h i m t o i d e n t i f y h i s o w n s o u l w i t h i t . T h e s o u l i s a s m u c h t h e h e r o o f t h i s b o o k a s i t w a s o f t h e b o o k s o f t h e o t h e r m e d i e v a l i s t t r a v e l e r s i n M e x i c o . S t y l i s t i c a l l y , t h e b o o k s o u n d s e v e r y n o t e . H e r e i s t h e d i r e c t , f l a t c o n v e r s a t i o n a l i d i o m o f t h e u n i m a g i n a t i v e M r . Q u i n c e y , t h e s t r a n g e l y f i l t e r e d S p a n i s h o f D r . V i g i l , d i a g n o s i n g t h e I l l s o f t h e C o n s u l : " S i c k n e s s I s n o t o n l y i n b o d y , b u t i n t h a t p a r t u s e d t o b e c a l l t s o u l . P o o r y o u r f r i e n d , h e s p e n d h i s m o n e y o n e a r t h i n s u c h c o n t i n u o u s t r a g e d i e s . H e r e I s t h e b r u t a l t a l k o f 445 the American f a s c i s t : "They shoot f i r s t and ask. questions l a t e r " (p. 47); o f the Mexican pimp: "You lik e Maria? I send. Me amigo” (p. 352); the murderous Chief o f Rostrums: "You are no a de w r i t e r , you are de e s p id e r, and we shoota de esp id e rs in M ejlco." (p. 371) Here is the p re c ise voice o f the n a r r a to r , speaking with s c i e n t i f i c detachment: "Two mountain chains tra v e rse the rep u b lic roughly from north to so u th , forming between them a number of v alley s and p la te a u s ." (p. 3) But c l i n i c a l detachment is complemented by p assio n ate o u tb u rsta o f p e o try , the poetry o f a man who perceives the world w ithin in terms o f sound. Lowry, lik e Dylan Thomas with whom he was f r ie n d ly , is a poet o f sound, p a r ti c u la r ly in moments o f "m escal-induced phantasmagorlaj! lik e the passage in Chapter Five when the Consul fin d s him self running through the garden toward the b o t t l e ; ", . . a n Inconceivable anguish o f h o r r i p l l a t l n g hangover thunderclapping about his s k u l l , and accompanied by a p ro te c tiv e screen o f demons g n a tte rln g in h is ears, . . . ” (p. 126) A ll o f the sounds o f Mexico, the sounds of u n iv e rs a l sorrow, re v e rb e ra te from the pages — as In th is re p re s e n ta tiv e passage: N ight: and once ag ain , the n ig h tly grapple with death, the room shaking with daemonic o rc h e s tra s , the snatches o f f e a r f u l s le e p , the voices o u tsid e the window, my name being c o n tin u a lly repeated 446 w ith scorn by imaginary p a r ti e s a r r i v in g , the d a r k 's s p in e ts . As I f there were not enough r e a l noises In these n ig h ts the c o lo r o f grey h a ir . Not lik e the rending tumult o f American c i t i e s , the noise o f the unbandaglng o f g reat g ia n ts in agony. But the howling p ariah dogs, the cocks th at h e rald dawn a l l n ig h t, the drumming, the moaning th at w i l l be found l a t e r white plumage huddled on teleg rap h w ires In back gardens o r fowl ro o stin g In apple t r e e s , the e te r n a l sorrow th a t never sleep s o f g re at Mexico. For myself I lik e to take my sorrow Into the shadow o f old m o n asteries, my g u i lt Into c l o i s t e r s and under t a p e s t r i e s , and Into the m lserlcordes o f unimaginable c a n tin as where sad-faced p o tte rs and le g le s s beggars drink a t dawn, whose c o ld , jo n q u il beauty one red isco v ers in death, (p. 35) Sounds — the Consul f a l l i n g a slee p "with a crash" (p* 93) > the b e lls t o l li n g "dolente . . . d o lo re" (pp. 42, 373)j his dying scream "tossed from one tre e to another" (p. 375) — are enhanced by the e x tra o rd in a ry | f e e lin g o f movement. E verything in Mexico is moving d ra m a tic a lly , p a r a l le li n g the s o u l 's fre n z ie d s tru g g le s : i i clouds are "dark sw ift horses surging up the sky" ( p .10); f i r e s p l i t s the rock a p a rt (p. 55); w aters sw irl and eddy, w hile overhead "an e c s t a t i c lig h tn in g of stran g e b ird s manoeuvred, lo o p in g -th e-lo o p and Immelmanlng a t unbelievable speed, a c ro b a tic as new-born d r a g o n -flie s ." (p. 109) Light Is movement: a t the end o f the f i r s t c h a p te r, L aru elle burns the C onsul's unmalled l e t t e r — h is cry from h e l l to Yvonne — which c o lla p se s lik e a burning c a s tl e (p. 42); even the volcanoes move (p. 315); HU7 and throughout the book, death Is imaged as v u ltu re s so arin g e a s ily and b e a u tif u lly overhead. Lowry*s book is r ic h w ith a llu s io n s to o th e r poetB: Dante, Donne, Blake, Shakespeare, Poe, Marlowe — c h ie f among them. He, him self w orried In c e ssa n tly about h is l i t e r a r y borrowings. In a l e t t e r to A lbert E rsklne in the summer o f 19^6 in response to questions about th a t, he wondered about the need to acknowledge the "echoes" in notes a t the end o f the book. He was p a r ti c u l a r ly j i ! concerned with phrases taken from D. H. Lawrence’s l e t t e r s - - equating war w ith the "personal b a t t l e " th at should be c a rrie d in to the sou l o f every man in England, i [ ! the h i l l s o f Oaxaca "standing round, inhuman," the j n _66 i s e c re t mines o f s i l v e r . E rsklne obviously reassu red j him since no notes appeared in the o r ig in a l e d itio n . Nor j should they have. The rich n ess o f a llu s io n s from l i t e r a r y sources gives the novel the q u a lity o f a "c o lle c tlv e u tte ra n c e " — th at q u a lity which is shared by p rim itiv e poets and such a pow erfully s o p h is tic a te d w r ite r as T. S. E lio t in The Waste Land. That e f f e c t is f u r th e r enhanced by Lowry*s use of b illb o a r d s , s ig n s , a d v e r tis e ments, and scraps o f nursery rhymes — a technique which Is exaggerated almost to a b su rd ity in October Ferry to Q ab rio la. In Under the Volcano, however, the jargon of 448 movie ads, road s ig n s , j o u r n a l i s t i c telegrams acquire s u r r e a l i s t i c meaning, o cc u lt s ig n ific a n c e ; they become warnings from another world. The most dramatic example o f th is is the fa m ilia r sign th a t appears in Mexican parks and th at re c u rrs many times in the book: I£ GUSTA ESTE JARDIN QUE ES SUYO? EVTTE C ^U E SUS HIJOS LO DESTRUYAN. The Consul d is a s tro u s ly m is tra n s la te s th is to read: "You lik e th is garden? Why Is i t yours? W e evice those who d e s t r o y . " ^ The words, he f e l t , were a " f i n a l Judgement" on him, yet "unproductive o f any emotion whatsoever, unless a kind of c o lo u rle s s , c o ld , a white agony. . . . " I ! (pp. 128 -2 9 ) U ltim a te ly , however, what gives Under the Volcano i t s d i s tin c tio n is the in t e n s i ty of Lowry*s a r t - l i f e experience in Mexico and In re - c r e a tin g th at l a t e r in Canada. Margerle Lowry was rig h t when she to ld the agent about i t s worth — as w ell as being remarkably generous: You may think th a t some o f th is smacks o f the lo y a l l i t t l e wife running to the defense o f her mate, but I t e l l you t h is : th a t only a person whose whole e x isten ce !£ h is work, who has dominated and d is c ip lin e d the volcano w ithin him, a t what a co st o f s u ffe rin g even 1 do not wholly understand, could have w ritte n such a book. 68 4M 9 I t Is not s u rp ris in g th a t he could not w rite anything e ls e . Among the Indians In Mexico as In the Southwest, there Is the b e l i e f th a t to c re a te a fla w le ss work Is to be fin is h e d as an a r t i s t ; an Im perfection must be d e lib e r a te ly introduced In to the design o r the o b je c t so th at the soul w ill not be Imprisoned In i t . Lowry did not allow him self that escape. NOTES CHAPTER VI Under the Volcano (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, W 7 ) , p . 133.------ Selected L e tte r s of Malcolm Lowry (New York: Capricorn Books, lg p g ), p. 4jt}. Not a l l c r i t i c s were equ ally e n th u s ia s tic . Jacques Barzun c a l l I t "fulsome and f i c t i t i o u s " and scorn fu lly said of Lowry th a t: "while Im ita tin g the tr i c k s of Joyce, Dos Passos and S terne, he gives us the h e a rt and mind of S ir P h ilip Gibbs." (See Lowry's reply to Barzun. Selected L e t te r s , p. 143.) A Malcolm Lowry C atalogue, ed, J. Howard Woolmer (New York: Foous S e r ie s , No. 2 ), p. 44. In the au to b io g rap h ical account of the second t r i p to Mexico, Lowry says th a t what he and Eddie Kent had In common was "the f le tI t l o u a n e s s of t h e i r li v e s ." Dark As the Orave Wherein M y F riend la Laid (P h lls - d elp h la: J. B. L lp plncott Co., 19t>7)» P* 130. Gerard Manley Hopkins' d e s c rip tio n In r e la ti o n to the mind of Lowry Is pointed out by Douglas Day in the Preface to Dark As the Grave, p. x l l . Dark As the Orave. p. 199. Lowry choked to death In h is sleep In the Lowrys' co ttage In Sussex a f t e r a n ight of excessive d rin k ing and having taken a con siderable q u a n tity of b a r b itu r a te t a b l e t s — so th a t an Inquest had to be held. In 1946, he was th in k in g of I t In terms of a t r i l o g y , according to statem ents he made to A lbert E rsklne. S elected L e t t e r s , pp. 113-14. In a l e t t e r to Harold Matson In November 1951, the cycle was being planned as a more comprehensive p a rt with Dark As the Orave and "The F orest Path to the Spring^ a lso to be included. S elected L e t t e r s , P . 267J 451 11. P h ila d elp h ia : J . B. L lpplncott Co., 1962. 12. S elected L e t t e r s , pp. 15-16. 13. P h ila d elp h ia : J. B. L lpplncott Co, 1961. R eprinted as a paperback by C apricorn Books, 1 9 6 9. 14. San F rancisco: City Lights Books. 15. According to Lowry's l e t t e r to David Markson In 1956, the French magazine L 'E sp rlt f i r s t published the sh o rt novel. S elected L e t t e r s , p. 394. 16. New York: The World P ublishing Co., 1970. 17. S elected L e t t e r s , p. 2 6 7. 18. One of the most glowing reviews — and one which appears on the Jacket of the paperback e d itio n — was E lizab eth Janeways' In the New York Times Book Review: "Out of the melange of emotion, ex perience, dream and d i s a s t e r th a t was Lowry's p riv a te world, he has made a work of a r t — moving, noble, to be receiv ed with hum ility and g r a titu d e . . . . I t Is a w onderful, unexpected legacy fo r us a l l from a good man and a w r ite r of g re a t, g re a t t a l e n t . " 19. The S elected L e tte rs help to ex p lain the Lowry c u lt since many of them re v eal h is s ta tu r e both as an a r t i s t and a man. 20. Dark As the Orave, p. 6 l . 21. S elected Poems, p. 2 9 . 22. Preface to Dark As the Orave, p. x l. 2 3 . S elected L e t t e r s , p. 6 . 24. S elected Poems, p. 74. 2 5 . S elected L e t t e r s , p. 7. 2 6 . Dark As the Qrave, p. 6 3 . 27. This Image, from Dark As the Orave, p. 6 l , appears a n u m b e r of t i m e s in U n d e r t h e Volcano. ( S e e p. 8 8 .) 452 28. Selected Poems, p. 25; a ls o Under the Volcano, p. 8 8 . 29. Selected Poems, p. 35. 30. S elected L e t t e r s , p. 14. Lowry was to rn by a d e s ire to b eliev e in the e ffe c tiv e n e s s of p o l i t i c a l a c tio n and the hopelessness of doing t h a t . Hugh, the I d e a l i s t sid e of the Consul as w ell as h a lf - b r o th e r to him, d e p a rts a f t e r O eo ffrey's death to s a i l fo r Spain to help the L o y alist cause. But the L o y alist cause In Spain was a doomed cause and Hugh Is k i l l e d on the way to help. 31. Dark As the Orave, p. 124, In th a t book, the whole episode Is r e la te d In g re a t d e t a i l . 32. S elected L e t t e r s , p. 15. The few l e t t e r s from Mexico Tn 193b and l $37 th a t survive are among the most remarkable In the whole c o l le c tio n . In one to John Davenport, the English author and c r i t i c who was a lif e lo n g frie n d , Lowry d esc rib es the h o rro r of h is c o n d itio n , fe a rin g "Imminent In s a n ity ." And he makes c le a r the e x te n t of h is I s o la tio n : "Nobody but the Oaxaquenlans w ill say a good word fo r me. The Spanish d e te s t me; the Americans despise me; and the English tu rn t h e i r backs on me." (p. 12) In a l e t t e r to a Oaxaquenlan frie n d — Juan Fernando Marquez - - he p r o te s ts the " s tu p id ity and hypocrisy" of the lo c a l d e te c tiv e s whose " e te rn a l spying . . . com p le te ly transcend any c r im in a lity I have ever encountered anywhere In the world" (pp. 13-14) 33. The r e s t of the sentence reads: " . . . but lik e Columbus a ls o I thought Cuba was on the mainland and i t was not and lik e Columbus a ls o I t Is p o ssib le I am leav in g a h e rita g e of d e s tr u c tio n ." (p. 1 2) 34. Dark As the Qrave, p. 92. 35. S elected L e t t e r s , p. 15. 3 6 . Dark As the Qrave, pp. 251-52. 37. S elected L e tte rs , p . 8 5 . 453 38. Lowry sp e lle d out the g u i l t theme In the l e t t e r to Jonathan Cape, saying th a t "Hugh may be a b i t of a fool but he none the le s s t y p i f i e s the s o r t of person who may make or break our fu tu re ; In fa c t he Is the fu tu re In a c e r ta in sen se." (p. 75) 39. Under the Volcano, pp. 250-51. 40. S elected L e t t e r s , p. 71. 41. Dark As the Orave. Lowry compares a hangover with the House or u sh er, which — he says — was a hang over: "The s t a t e of h is soul In such a hangover, the ta rn s and m ists were h is hideous thoughts, and i t s f a l l was h is s o u l 's f a l l . " (p. 202) 42. Douglas Day, Preface to Dark As the Orave, p. x v ll. 4 3 . S elected L e t t e r s , p. 6 7 . 44. Passage from "The House of D u s t1 1 quoted by Lowry In h is l e t t e r to Aiken, S elected L e t t e r s , p. 3. 45. Blue Voyage, The C o lle c te d Novels of Conrad Aiken (New York: HoItV rflnehart, and Winston, In c ., ), P. 118. 46. U ltram arine (rev ised e d itio n . P h ila d elp h ia : J. B. L lpp ln cott Company, 1962), p. 99. 47. Blue Voyage, p. 109. 48. R. P. Blackmur, In tro d u c tio n to The C ollected Novels of Conrad Aiken, pp. 10-11. 4 9 . Lunar C a u s tic , p. 9. 50. Hear Us 0 Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling P lace, p. 188 51. S elected L e t t e r s , p. 147. 5 2 . The P riv ate Labyrinth of Maloolm Lowry (New York: H olt, R inehart and w inston, 19&3), p. 13. 53. S elected L e t t e r s , pp. 70-71. 54. Under the Volcano, pp. 198-99. 454 55. The P riv ate Labyrinth of Malcolm Lowry, p. 6 0 . j 56. Under the Volcano, pp. 36-37. j 57. S elected L e t t e r s , p. 8 5 . 58. Lowry'a response to B arzun's review and B arzun's re p ly are both In S elected Lett e r s . See e s p e c ia lly , pp. 143-48; p. 59. The l e t t e r to Jonathan Cape Is c r i t i c a l to an under standing of Under the Volcano and to Lowry s a r t i s t i c s tre n g th . S elected L e t t e r s , pp. 57-88. 6 0 . Richard Hauer C osta, A Malcolm Lowry Catalogue, pp. 41-44. ------------------------------------- 6 1. Dark As the Qrave, pp. 150-51. 62. Douglas Day, Preface to Dark As the Grave, p. x l i . 6 3 . Under the Volcano, p. 202. 64. S elected L e t t e r s , p. 81. 6 5 . Under the Volcano, p. 5. 66. S elected L e t t e r s , pp. 115-16. 6 7 . Under the Volcano, p. 128. 68. S elected L e tte r s , p. 422. L BIBLIOORAPHY 4 5 5 S E L E C T E D B I B L I O G R A P H Y B e c a u s e o f t h e s c o p e o f t h i s d i s s e r t a t i o n t h e b i b l i o g r a p h y c o n t a i n s o n l y t h o s e w o r k s c i t e d I n t h e t e x t . i L M 56 Aaron, D aniel. W riters the L e f t . Nev; York: Harcourfe, Brace ft World, 1961. Aiken, Conrad. The C o llected Hovels &£ Cor.rad Aiken. 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Nev: York: American Authors and C r it ic s S e rie s , 1 9 6 9* Blake, W illiam . Poems and P ro p h ecies. Nev; York: E. P. Dutton & C o., 1939* I B lavatsky , H. P. The Kev to Theosophy. London: The ^ Theosophical P u blishing Company, L td ., 1 8 8 9. B ened ict, Ruth. P a tte rn s o f C u ltu re . New York: The New American L ibrary o f World L i t e r a t u r e , 195^. i B ierce, Ambrose. In the Mldst of L i f e . New York: The Modern L ib ra ry , 19^7- B renner, A nita, Id o ls Behind A l t a r s . Nev; York: Payson ft C lark e, L td ., l955Ft 458 B r e t t , Dorothy. Lawrence and B r e t t ! A F rie n d sh ip . P h ila d e lp h ia : J . B. L lp p ln co tt C o., 1933* i Brown, Norman 0. L ife Against D eath. Middle town, Conn.: Wesleyan U n iv ersity P re s s , 1959* i ; . Love's Body. Nev: York: Random House, 1966. ! j Brown, Susan Jen k in s. 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A u stin , Texas: U n iv ersity o f Texas P ress, 1964. | C o lerid g e, Samuel T aylor. B iographic Li t e r a r l a . Nev; York: E. P. Dutton & C o., I n c . , 1 9 3 9 . Conrad, Joseph. Heart o f D arkness. E dited by Robert Kimbrough. New York: W . W . Norton & Company, 1 9 6 3. | Las t E ssa y s. London: J . M. Dent & Sons. Ltd.! : ---- 19557 Nostromo. New York: D & M P ublishing Co., I n c . , 19637 459 Crane, H art. The C ollected Poems o f Hart Crane. New York: L lv e rig h t P u b lish in g C orporation, 1933. i . Maggie and Other S t o r i e s . New York: Washington Square P re ss, I n c ., i 9 6 0. ! Cummins, Saxe, ed. The S o c ia l P h ilo so p h e rs. New York: Ran do 'a House, i9 * r.--------------------------------- Dean, Leonard, ed. Joseph Conrad'a BarfcnCfifi* Englewood C l i f f s , N .J .: P re n tlc e -H a ll, 190O. 1 ! D eV ltis, A . A . G r a h a m Greene. Nev; York: Tv/ayn e P u b lis h e rs , 1964. Diaz del C a s t i l l o , B ernal. The Conquest of Mexico. 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E v ert, W alter H. A esthetic and Myth In the Poetry of K eats. PrInceton, N . J .: P rinceton U niversity P ress, 1 9 6 5. P a ir , C harles M. The Dying S e l f . Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan U niv ersity P ress, 1 9 6 9. Pay, E l i o t. Lorenzo In Search of the Sun. New York: Bookman A ssociates, i n c ., 1953. Felnberg, Leonard. In tro d u c tio n to S a t ir e . Ames: The Iowa S ta te U n iv ersity l5?ess,~r9E7^ F ie d le r, L e s lie . "The Discovery of P lace," The Art of the E ssay. New York: Thomas Crowell Company, 19^9. F l i n t , Timothy, ed. The Personal N arratIve of James 0. P a t t le . Chlcago7“The Lakeside p re ss, l9?0. F razer, S ir James Oeorge. The golden Bough. New York: The Macmillan Company, 19**TT French, Warren. The F o r t i e s : F ic tio n , P o etry , and Drama. Deland, F lo rid a : E v erett Edwards, I9t>9. Freud, Sigmund. The Basic W ritings of Sigmund Freud. New York: The Modern L ibrary7 193#. Greene, Graham. Another Mexico. 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